WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani have discussed attacks on US personnel in Iraq, Arab media reported on Tuesday.
The US top diplomat lauded Iraq’s “condemnation” of recent assaults on US troops in the country during a telephone call with Iraq’s Prime Minister. In a statement posted on social media, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller also confirmed the talks between the two sides. The spokesperson said that Blinken thanked Iraqi Prime Minister for Baghdad’s “promise to hold attackers accountable and to secure the US personnel in Iraq and Syria.
US, Iraq Discuss Attacks on US Troops
During the phone call, the US Secretary of State also denounced a recent assault near the US embassy in Baghdad. The US has said that the US troops and their allies have faced dozens of assaults in Iraq and Syria since the war in Gaza started.
There are around 2,500 US forces in Iraq and around 900 in Syria as part of attempt to prevent a resurgence of insurgency in the country. The US has counted about 84 assaults since October 17 against its troops in Syria and Iraq. Earlier, the Pentagon said that the assaults against US forces have left around 60 US personnel injured.
On Friday barrages of rockets were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone, the mission stated, the latest in a burst of such assaults amid the Hamas-Israel war.
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“A multi-rocket assault was launched at US and Coalition troops in the area of Union III and the Baghdad embassy complex” without causing any damage, an American said.
Friday’s rocket strike was the first against the American embassy in Baghdad since the Hamas-Israel war started on October 7, increasing regional tensions and fears of a wider crisis.
