SULAIMANI (ESTA) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that Iran-backed militias attacking diplomatic facilities in Iraq are “the most serious impediment” to helping Iraq return to peace and prosperity.
In a statement, Pompeo condemned a rocket attack targeting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s Green House.
Eight Katyusha rockets landed in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone in an attack targeting the U.S. embassy, causing minor damage on the compound, Reuters cited the Iraqi military and the embassy as saying.
The Iraqi military said in a statement that an “outlaw group” fired the rockets. The rockets hit a residential complex inside the Green Zone, damaging buildings and cars but causing no casualties, the statement read.
“As Iraq struggles with COVID-19 and an increasingly dire economic crisis, Iran-backed militias are the most serious impediment to helping Iraq return to peace and prosperity,” Pompeo said.
“The same militias targeting diplomatic facilities are stealing Iraqi state resources on a massive scale, attacking peaceful protesters and activists, and engaging in sectarian violence,” he added.
Pompeo also called on the Iraqis to support their government’s efforts to reinforce Iraq’s sovereignty, to bring to justice those responsible for “these reprehensible attacks and ensure that all the currently Iran-backed militias are under state control”.
The U.S. Embassy to Iraq confirmed that the rockets had targeted the Green Zone, resulted in the engagement of embassy defensive systems.
U.S. officials blame Iran-backed militia for regular rocket attacks on U.S. facilities in Iraq, including near the embassy in Baghdad. No known Iran-backed groups have claimed responsibility.
An array of militia groups announced in October that they had suspended rocket attacks on U.S. forces on condition that Iraq’s government present a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops.
But a rocket strike on the U.S. Embassy on Nov. 18 was also a clear sign that Iranian-backed militias had decided to resume attacks on U.S. bases, according to Iraqi security officials.
Washington, which is slowly reducing its 5,000 troops in Iraq, threatened to shut its embassy unless the Iraqi government reins in Iran-aligned militias.
