Dozens of attacks on U.S. military facilities by Iran-backed factions in Iraq over the past two months have forced the government in Baghdad to perform a balancing act that is becoming more difficult by the day.

Dozens of attacks on U.S. military facilities by Iran-backed factions in Iraq over the past two months as the Israel-Hamas war has raged have forced Baghdad into a balancing act that’s becoming more difficult by the day.

A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday marked a further escalation as Iraqi officials scramble to contain the ripple effects of the latest Middle East war.

Iran holds considerable sway in Iraq and a coalition of Iran-backed groups brought Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to power in October 2022. At the same time, there are some 2,000 U.S. troops in Iraq under an agreement with Baghdad, mainly to counter the militant Islamic State group.

  • Maeve
    -5•1 year ago

    And how did Iran come to be what they are, hmm?

    • QuokkaEnglish
      7•1 year ago

      Yes America is largely to cause for the fundamentalists in charge of Iran.

      But that doesn’t mean Iran is incapable of being its own regional actor today. And at some point Iran is responsible for its own actions, sanctions or not.

    • @KumabearEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      I’m sorry what? I think you should go check your Iranian history then come back.

      Iran was a flourishing moderate country before their Islamic revolution, they were even an ally of the US.

      They had a revolution by a sect of ultra conservative sharia law islamics that changed all that.

      The US is responsible for many unfortunate changes of government and old friends turning enemy… but not this one.

      They got the way they are through oppressing the female half of their population, poor foreign policy, corruption and being more concerned with hurting their neighbours than building and maintaining their nation.

      So they are now an unproductive, backwards pariah state that kills teen girls for trying to get educated or not wearing a headscarf, Iran did that all by themselves how great!

      • QuokkaEnglish
        8•1 year ago

        Mate, that’s a pretty poor telling of events.

        There wouldn’t have been a revolution if not for the US/Brit coup of a democratically elected leftist leader over the nationalisation of BP oil fields in Iran 20 years prior in favour of an authoritarian monarch.

        • Maeve
          4•1 year ago

          It’s as good as you’re likely going to get from western sources. Yes, we have to “prove” leftist government can’t work by undermining it, always. Telling, isn’t it?

          • QuokkaEnglish
            1•1 year ago

            The current Iranian government has nothing to do with leftism. Focus on the world you live in today.