Iraqis suspicious of US plan to close embassy in Baghdad

A senior Iraqi lawmaker says reports of the US bid to shut down its embassy in Baghdad following recent rocket attacks are “groundless” rumors aimed at forcing the Iraqi government to give in to Washington’s demands.

Kate' Al-Rikabi, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said the US is using the indirect threat of closing its Baghdad embassy as a means of pressuring Iraq into implementing its demands.

“Foreign media outlets are trying to provoke public opinion in Iraq by spreading rumors of the US embassy closure,” he said, according to Baghdad al-Youm.

A US State Department official told Al Jazeera Thursday that the US embassy in Baghdad is open. “The US ambassador is present at the embassy in Baghdad, and our embassy is doing its job.”

It came after the American news website Axios claimed the United States was considering quickly closing its embassy in Baghdad after a series of rocket attacks on Iraq's Green Zone.

On Sunday, several Katyusha rockets were fired at the Green Zone, killing one Iraqi civilian and causing minor damage to the perimeter of the US embassy complex.

Al-Rikabi said the rocket attacks mainly put the lives of innocent civilians in danger,  adding the government must find the real perpetrators trying to disrupt the country’s stability.

“Terrorist groups or foreign-backed outfits might be behind such attacks,” he added.

The US embassy has been targeted several times this year, amid heightened anti-American sentiments in the Arab country in the aftermath of the US assassination of Iran’s anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad on January 3.

After the Trump-authorized terrorist act, the Iraqi parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution calling for the expulsion of US forces from the country. 

Anti-American sentiments have run even higher in the past few days as Iraqis are outraged by the US president’s decision to pardon Blackwater contractors jailed for the killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

The pardoned war criminals had been accused by prosecutors of illegally unleashing "powerful sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers on innocent men, women and children in Iraq in 2007."

The Iraqi Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday strongly condemned Trump’s mercy, calling for the termination or revision of contracts with American security companies operating in the Arab country.

Iraq denounces Trump’s pardon of Blackwater guards

Donald Trump issued pardons for four Blackwater contractors jailed for the 2007 killing of Iraqi civilians.

On Tuesday, Trump granted clemency for four guards from the notorious US mercenary firm Blackwater who were serving jail sentences for killing 14 civilians in Baghdad’s crowded Nisour Square in 2007, a tragic incident that caused international uproar over the use of private contractors in war zones.

The four pardoned security guards – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten - worked for the now-defunct Blackwater Worldwide security firm, which had been contracted by the US State Department to what it alleged provide protection for American diplomats in Iraq.

Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince, is the brother of US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and a forceful ally of the Trump administration.

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