Thousands of Iraqi protesters besieged the US Embassy in Baghdad Saturday, furious over Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
The mob that numbered in the thousands fought with embassy security forces that were decked out in riot gear. The demonstrators are carrying Hezbollah flags and photos of Nasrallah. Flags were also unfurled of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Force, The Times of Israel reported.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the killing of Nasrallah as “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines.” In a statement, he called Israel’s airstrikes on Beirut a “shameful attack” and described Nasrallah as “a martyr on the path of the righteous.”
Israel also killed Lebanon Hamas leader Fateh Sharif Monday in an Israeli airstrike. Sharif was working undercover as a teacher at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. The Israeli attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in the ancient city of Tyre also left Sharif’s wife and two children dead. Israel said Sharif was the chief liaison between the Lebanon operations of Hamas and Hezbollah.
While Israel broadens the scope of its airstrikes against Beirut, tensions continue to build as well as rumors that the Israeli Defense Force is on the verge of invading Lebanon and further escalating the war in the Middle East and potentially prompting other countries in the region to participate.
