It was such a long day to end the year with! in this thread I’ll describe what I’ve seen today briefly about the attack against @USEmbBaghdad by Shia militias supporters. Read our story with @LizSly washingtonpost.com/world/iran-bac…
The tension between those groups and the US is way back before the last US attack against KH bases western Iraq and Syria, it’s linked to the tension between US and Iran and increased recently on October when the #IraqProtests anti Iran started.
Those groups considered the protests as conspiracy act by the United States because it’s threatening the Iranian influence in Iraq, they even described the protesters as “American Joker gangs”
Early morning those groups organized a funeral marching in Baghdad for the deaths of KH fighters who died in US strike against their headquarters western Iraq, which was a respond for series of attacks against Military bases the last one killed an American contractor.
They were thousands of people some with weapons and military vehicles, then they headed towards the fortified green zone where the US and other embassies are located. This area is allowed for civilians, only those with special access, but those crowds couldn’t be stopped.
They besieged the US embassy, set up tents and threw Molotov cocktails inside which caused fire, civil defense of the embassy could be seen from outside trying to put out the fire, they put the pictures of those who died western Iraq on the embassy wall and wrote many graffitis..
They wrote “Solaimani is my leader” and other graffitis and they holding photos of Khamenei. It was thousands of people chanting “death to America and Israel” among the crowd there were senior militia commanders like Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandus, who is classified as terrorist by the US
Then they broke into the main reception where the visitors to the embassy get searched and burned it, plus the burned towers and broke the surveillance cameras. Iraqi Forces where just standing and watching at the beginning.
Then the people tried to get inside the embassy which made the embassy security fire tear gas, smoke and stun grenades, and actually those canisters were nothing compare to the ones Iraqi riot police are using, they were almost harmless, even those groups called them “cute”
Then a milita leader on loudspeakers was demanding he people not to storm the embassy, asking them to do a sit-in only outside and their demands are shutting down the embassy and the departure of the US troops from Iraq.
They didn’t listen and they kept trying to storm the embassy, throwing stones inside and Molotov cocktails, then Iraqi forces intervened without weapons and made a buffer between them and the embassy, lots of people yelled at the forces saying “shame on you protecting them”
With discussions between the interior minister and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandus, the people stopped trying to storm the embassy but kept stoning and throwing Molotovs until, I left late night and they were still doing it while American soldiers were on the roof looking at them.
Counter terrorism forces arrived late night after those groups burned the second reception gate of the embassy and now they are still besieging the embassy and sat up many tents, cars belong to them were bringing them food and drinks.
The situation now is critical, US helicopters are flying over the embassy and on the ground thousands of angry people all around the embassy with embassy employees besieged inside.
And at the moment, flags of Iran backed militias are over the US embassy in Baghdad. 
