Iraq links Baghdad US embassy attackers to security services

Iraq’s government has said that several people who are alleged to have attacked the US embassy in Baghdad last week have links to the country’s security services.

A spokesperson for the Iraqi prime minister on Thursday did not, however, provide details on which security services the alleged perpetrators were linked to.

The announcement came a week after rocket salvos hit the US’s heavily fortified compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone, causing minor damage.

The statement said Iraq’s security forces had arrested several people allegedly responsible for the December 7 attacks and were pursuing others.

“Unfortunately, preliminary information indicates that some of them are connected to certain security services”, it said, adding that the search was continuing “to reach all those involved”.

The AFP news agency, citing an anonymous Iraqi security official, reported that 13 people had already been arrested, including security forces members.

Under fire

While no group claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, claimed separate attacks the same day on a US airbase in Iraq and another base in eastern Syria.

Those attacks are among dozens to have targeted US facilities in Syria and Iraq since the Gaza war broke out on October 7, with anger flaring over Washington’s staunch backing of Israel.

During this period, the US military said its facilities have been hit 84 times, injuring some 60 service personnel. The US has blamed Iran-backed militias for the attacks and called on Baghdad to rein them in.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, himself brought to power by a pro-Tehran coalition, called the latest embassy attacks “unacceptable and unjustifiable” and promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Targeting diplomatic missions is something that cannot be justified,” al-Sudani said last week, adding that such assaults undermine Iraq’s “stability and security”.

The US has roughly 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq and around 900 others in eastern Syria, on missions against ISIL (ISIS).