Recent reports by US media suggested that Washington plans to assassinate the leaders of anti-terror resistance groups in Iraq, particularly the Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba. Washington claims the group was behind a deadly drone strike on US forces in Syria in March.
The protesters on Friday voiced discontent with the meddlesome behavior of US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski. They demanded that the government and parliament publicly declare their positions on the US embassy, according to the Iraqi news agency Shafaq.
The demonstrators said the gathering was only the beginning and more could come.
Security was tight in the areas surrounding the Green Zone of Baghdad, where the embassy is located.
In late 2019, Iraqi protesters breached the outer wall of the heavily fortified US embassy headquarters. That marked the first breach since the embassy's construction following the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. That protest was in response to US airstrikes targeting the sites of anti-Deash resistance groups.
In January 2020, the United States assassinated Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units, along with Iran’s top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. The act of terror added to the already intense anti-US sentiment in Iraq.
RHM/Press TV