Angry protestors stormed the presidential palace in Iraq. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy was evacuated via helicopter in a scene that recalls the final days of South Vietnam.
Initial reports indicate that helicopters were ordered in, and staff was ordered to leave when there were rioters breaking into the Zone. Also, I saw that one person was shot and killed. However, it is not clear if they were American personnel, rioters, or American helicopters.
This is all we know about the situation at the Embassy.
This is the second humiliating bugout by an Islamic country that the Biden Administration has conducted in just over one year. 13 Americans were killed during Presidentish Joe’s failed retreat from Afghanistan. There are still untold numbers of Americans, as well as thousands of our allies, stranded there.
After seeing the scene in the presidential palace, it is impossible to predict what will happen next in Iraq.
As dozens of young men engaged in street battles, tear gas was used by security forces to disperse protesters from the entrance of the heavily fortified government area.
Reporters said that gunfire could be heard in central Baghdad due to weapons fired into the air.
Surprising footage captured inside the palace showed violent clashes between protesters, baton-wielding police officers and those wearing bulletproof vests.
After influential Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr’s permanent resignation from politics, riots broke out. We’ll have to wait and see how long. He also withdrew his plurality from parliament.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s caretaker government was already weak and basically powerless.
What is the situation in Iraq?
Iran.
Al-Sadr appears to have made the statement in response to Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri’s retirement as a Shiite spiritual leader. Many of al-Sadrs supporters are his followers. Al-Haeri stated that he would be retiring from religious authority, and asked his followers to support Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This was seen as a blow against al-Sadr.
The chaos in Iraq appears to be a semi-legal coup supported by Iran at first glance. It’s a political chaos that local Iranian forces have created.
