In images released on December 31, three Apache AH-64 helicopters of the United States Armed Forces arrived in Baghdad to protect their embassy, burned down last Tuesday by protesters.
The aircraft flew over the capital of Iraq and fired flares to make their presence known and deter the protesters.
The units moved several dozen US Marines. A video shows the military leaving the helicopters and moving towards the US diplomatic headquarters. UU.
According to RT information, the newly arrived Marines have joined the US Army troops. UU.
They are already settled in Iraq. In this regard, the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, explained that the objective is “to guarantee the right to self-defense.”
A large number of members of the Iraqi security forces charged with protecting the Green Zone, where embassies and government buildings are located, remain deployed around the US Embassy, a source from the Interior Ministry that requested anonymity told Efe.
According to his account, the diplomatic legation itself, which has suspended its consular services until further notice, has also reinforced its security and at least one Apache helicopter has landed on its roof in recent hours.
On the 27th, an American contractor died in a rocket attack against a military base in northern Iraq, to which Washington responded by blaming Shia militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) for the latest attacks against its facilities in the country.
The Pentagon reported Sunday that, in response to the attack that ended the contractor’s life and injured several other people, he had carried out “defensive attacks” in Iraq and Syria against KH, which killed at least 25 people, according to the pro-government militias Popular Crowd.
In turn, hundreds of supporters of the mainly Shiite armed group stormed the US Embassy in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, an attack that culminated last night with their withdrawal from the area in question.
After the incident, President Donald Trump accused Iran of devising the attack. But the Middle East country categorically rejected the accusations.