The State Department on Tuesday "expressed outrage" at the death of five civilians in a rocket attack in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Monday. The State Department on Tuesday called on Iraqi authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable. Take immediate action.
The Iraqi military says two militia rockets
hit a family home Monday, killing three children and two women. Baghdad airport
was the target, police sources said.
The attack came as Iraqi officials and
Western diplomats said Washington was preparing to withdraw its officials from
Iraq following a Baghdadi warning to close its embassy. Any move by the United
States to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country in the presence of
thousands of troops would be seen’ as an escalation of its confrontation with
Iran in the region, for which Washington is responsible for missile and bomb
attacks. ۔
Iraqis fear their country could become a the battleground in a proxy war.
"We have previously stated that the
actions of illegally supported militias in Iran are the biggest obstacle to
stability in Iraq," State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus said in a
statement.
"We are outraged by yesterday's
rocket attack in Baghdad that killed civilians, including a mother and her
children," he said.
Iraqi intelligence sources have suggested
that plans to withdraw US diplomats were not yet in place, and will depend on
whether Iraqi security forces do a better job of thwarting the attacks. He said
he had received orders to stop attacks on US sites and was told’ that the US
withdrawal would begin as soon as the attempt failed.
During the US occupation of 2003, rockets
regularly flew across the Tigris toward the US embassy compound, the world's
largest embassy under construction in the so-called central Green Zone in
central Baghdad.
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