ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Outgoing US President Donald Trump has blamed Iran for Sunday’s Green Zone attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad, sparking a fresh war of words with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“Our embassy in Baghdad got hit Sunday by several rockets. Three rockets failed to launch. Guess where they were from: IRAN. Now we hear chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq..." he tweeted on Wednesday.
“Some friendly health advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.”
“Putting your own citizens at risk abroad won't divert attention from catastrophic failures at home,” Zarif tweeted in response to the president, accompanied by a collage of coronavirus death tolls in the US and previous Trump tweets saying former President Barack Obama would attack Iran for electoral gain.
Eight rockets were fired at Baghdad’s Green Zone on Sunday - home to the US embassy and several other diplomatic missions – injuring one Iraqi soldier and damaging the US embassy compound and civilian homes.
It was the latest of numerous rocket attacks – mostly by Iran-backed militias – which have targeted the embassy and the American presence in Iraq since the US assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3.
No group has taken responsibility for the attack.
The US Central Command made similar accusations on Wednesday, saying the US “will hold Iran accountable for the deaths of any Americans that result from the work of these Iranian-backed rogue militia groups,” adding that despite the minor damage on US embassy compound, the attack intended to cause casualties.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held Iran-backed groups responsible for “flagrantly and recklessly” targeting the US embassy on Sunday, saying they must “cease their destabilizing actions.”
“I warn the US regime not to set fire to the situation these days,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a press conference on Monday.
Iran and the US have long been at loggerheads, particularly since Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the landmark nuclear deal in 2018 – reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia killed a US contractor in December 2019 in a rocket attack on Kirkuk’s K1 military base, prompting US attacks against five facilities belonging to the group in Iraq and Syria - killing at least 25 of its militants.
Supporters of Iran-backed militias stormed the US embassy just days later, followed by the airstrike which killed Soleimani.
The killing of Soleimani and Iraqi commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al Shaabi) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis almost led to war between the US and Iran on Iraqi soil, with frequent rocket and IED attacks targeting American compounds and personnel ever since.
