IraqU.S. begins evacuation of Baghdad embassy; Iranian general coordinating the defense of Baghdad
The State Department yesterday (Sunday) that non-essential employees at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad were being evacuated, but that the United States would remain “fully equipped to carry out its national security mission.” The Pentagon has ordered an aircraft carrier and two missile-carrying ships to the Persian Gulf, hinting at the possibility of imminent U.S. air strikes against the advancing Sunni insurgents. The Sunni insurgents who now control about a third of Iraq said Sunday that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers, stressing that all those who killed were Shi’as. Iran had sent 2,000 advance troops to Baghdad, and General Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Qods Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is coordinating the defense of Baghdad.
The State Department yesterday (Sunday) that non-essential employees at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad were being evacuated, but that the United States would remain “fully equipped to carry out its national security mission.”
The Pentagon confirmed that some staff members had already been taken out of the country.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki qualified earlier department statement, saying: “Overall, a substantial majority of the U.S. embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place and the embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission.”
The Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, said in a statement: “At the request of the State Department, the U.S. military is providing security assistance for our diplomatic facilities in Baghdad.
“The temporary relocation of some embassy personnel is being facilitated aboard commercial, charter and State Department aircraft as appropriate. The U.S. military has airlift assets at the ready.”
The State Department also urged U.S. citizens in Iraq, who are not affiliated with the embassy, to “maintain security awareness at all times.”
The New York Times reports that the anxiety of both Iraqis and foreigners in the Iraqi capital has increased when the Sunni insurgents who now control about a third of Iraq said Sunday that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers, stressing that all those who killed were Shi’as. The insurgents also posted pictures on a militant Web site showing masked ISIS fighters forcing captives, with arms tied behind their backs, to lie in a ditch; subsequent images appeared to show bloodied bodies. Captions said the shootings were carried out to avenge the death of an ISIS commander earlier this week.
“We’re trying to verify the pics, and I am not convinced they are authentic,” Erin Evers, the Human Rights Watch researcher in Iraq, told the Times. “As far as ISIS claiming it has killed 1,700 people and publishing horrific photos to support that claim, it is unfortunately in keeping with their pattern of commission of atrocities, and obviously intended to further fuel sectarian war.”
Col. Suhail al-Samaraie, head of the Awakening Council in Samarra, a pro-government Sunni faction, also confirmed that officials in Salahuddin were aware of large-scale executions having taken place last week, but he did not know how many. “They are targeting anyone working with the government side, anyplace, anywhere,” he told the Times. He said the insurgents were targeting anyone with a government affiliation, whether Sunni or Shiite.
