Trump threatens Iran after Baghdad embassy attack

BAGHDAD - US President Donald Trump warned Tehran it would "pay a very big price" after a mob of pro-Iranian demonstrators stormed the American embassy compound in Iraq, as his government said it is sending hundreds more troops to the Middle East.

Meanwhile security forces at the US embassy in Baghdad fired tear gas early Wednesday to disperse the pro-Iran demonstrators who had spent the night outside the mission's gates.

Thousands of supporters of Iraqi armed factions close to Iran had massed at the embassy on Tuesday in outrage over US air strikes that killed 25 pro-Iran fighters at the weekend. Hundreds of protesters spilled through checkpoints in the high-security Green Zone, demanding the removal of American troops from Iraq and voicing loyalty to a powerful Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the attack was "orchestrated by terrorists," one of whom he named as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Muhandis has been identified as second-in-command of the Tehran-backed Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary group which includes Kataeb Hezbollah, the group that was targeted in the US air strikes.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said around 750 troops from a rapid response unit of the 82nd Airborne Division are prepared to deploy over the next several days to the region.

"This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against US personnel and facilities, such as we witnessed in Baghdad today," he said.

Prior to the announcement, a US official said that "up to 4,000 (troops) may ultimately be deployed".

The US had already flown a rapid response team of Marines into Baghdad to reinforce its embassy after the attack Tuesday, which left smoke and flames rising from the embassy entrance and further heightened tension between Tehran and Washington.

US - Iran

Esper's announcement is the latest move by Washington to step up its defences in the region since US President Donald Trump in May 2018 pulled out of a multinational nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed crippling economic sanctions.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly condemned the US strikes on the Iran-allied Kataeb Hezbollah, Iranian state TV reported on Wednesday, blaming the United States for the violence.

"The Iranian government, nation and I strongly condemn the attacks," state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

"Again that guy (Trump) has accused Iran for the attacks. You cannot do a damn thing. If you were logical, which you are not, you would see that your crimes in Iraq and other countries have made nations hate you," Khamenei tweeted.

"If Iran decides to confront a country, we will do that openly... If anyone threatens our nation's interests we will fight back... without any hesitation."

Trump had earlier blamed Tehran for the embassy attack and warned that it would face punishment if Americans are killed.

"Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities," Trump said on Twitter.

"They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat," wrote Trump, adding "Happy New Year!"

However, Trump later told reporters that he did not foresee war with Tehran.

'Surprising audacity'

Trump's message came at the end of a day in which Washington officials appeared surprised and furious over the ease at which the protesters entered the Green Zone, reaching the US embassy compound for the first time in years.

Live broadcasts showed the protesters battering down the high-security doors of the embassy reception building, smashing windows, burning a sentry box and chanting "Death to America!"

The State Department and Pentagon demanded Iraq's leaders provide security to the compound - which was already heavily fortified.

By the time a contingent of US Marine reinforcements flew in, some of the demonstrators had pulled back and others settled in for a sustained protest, preparing food for the evening.

Tehran said the United States is itself to blame for air strikes that killed about two dozen Kataeb Hezbollah fighters on Sunday.

"The surprising audacity of American officials is so much that after killing at least 25... and violating the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, that now... they attribute the Iraqi people's protest against their cruel acts to the Islamic Republic of Iran," said foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi.

While the US has blamed Iran for the attack, it has also pressured Iraqi security forces to step up, alarmed that the mobs were able to reach the embassy so easily.

The mob attack put a focus on the strains in the US-Iraqi relationship, which officials from both countries have described as the coldest in years.

 Allies of Iran, which enjoys significant support in parts of the Iraqi government, increasingly challenge Washington's influence in the country.

The widespread anti-government street protest movement against corruption, that has spread in the past months, has also seen Iraqis challenge neighbouring Iran's growing influence in their country.

'Strategic patience'

US jet fighters on Sunday struck five Kateab Hezbollah outposts in Iraq and Syria after a series of rocket attacks on US-occupied facilities in Iraq over the past two months that are blamed on the group and its alleged Iranian sponsors.

One of those attacks, in Kirkuk on Friday, left an American civilian contractor dead and exhausted what US officials called Trump's "strategic patience" with Tehran.

It also added to the growing calls by some political factions in Iraq to push US troops out of the country nearly 17 years after they entered and overthrew Saddam Hussein's regime.

The protesters who besieged the US embassy on Tuesday carried posters reading: "Parliament should oust US troops, or else we will!"

Late Tuesday Kataeb Hezbollah hailed the attack as a "first lesson" to Washington, "so that Trump knows he did something extremely stupid".

On Wednesday morning, after an overnight sit-in outside the US embassy, the crowds drew closer to the single wall separating them and the larger diplomatic compound, setting US flags on fire.

In response, security forces inside fired tear gas at the protesters, several of whom were reported wounded and ferried away by ambulances.

A cordon of Iraqi security forces that had formed around the embassy dissipated when the gas was fired, but reinforcements from the federal police soon arrived and the brief skirmishes calmed.

The US has blamed Iran for the attack but also pressured Iraqi security forces to step up, alarmed that the mobs were able to reach the embassy so easily.

US officials said there were no plans to evacuate the mission, and no US personnel were reported injured. Ambassador Matthew Tueller, who had been on holiday, was on his way back to the embassy.

The dramatic developments outside the embassy sparked comparisons with both the 1979 hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran and the deadly 2012 attack on the US mission in Libya's Benghazi.