Fox News – The siege outside of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad came to an end Wednesday afternoon after dozens of pro-Iran militiamen and their supporters withdrew from the compound. The two-day crisis started early Tuesday, when, in an orchestrated assault, hundreds of protesters stormed the embassy compound, one of the most heavily fortified U.S. diplomatic missions in the world. As the militiamen cleared the area, smoke still rose from a section of the compound building where hours
before they had lit a fire on the roof. The violent protests, which included smashed windows and sprayed graffiti on the embassy’s walls, were said to be in protest of the deadly U.S. airstrikes that targeted an Iran-backed militia over the weekend, killing 25 fighters. In turn, those strikes had been in response to a rocket attack on an Iraqi Army base that killed a U.S. contractor and injured several American troops. The protests prompted the Pentagon to send hundreds of additional troops to the Middle East. READ MORE
