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The protests mark a new turn in the shadow war between Washington and Tehran playing out across the Middle East. U.S. President Donald Trump, who faces re-election in 2020, on Tuesday threatened to retaliate against Iran but said later he did not want to go to war.

The unrest was prompted by air raids launched by the United States on Sunday against bases of the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah in retaliation for missile attacks that killed a U.S. contractor at a base in northern Iraq last week.

Crowds rallied on Tuesday to protest, chanting death to America, setting fires, throwing rocks and smashing surveillance cameras. They breached an outer perimeter of the heavily guarded embassy but did not enter the main compound.

The huge embassy, built along the banks of the Tigris River in central Baghdad’s fortified “green zone” during American occupation following the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, is the biggest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world.

Washington says its diplomats are safe and it is rushing hundreds of extra troops to the region.

PROXY WAR

Overnight, demonstrators pitched tents and camped outside the embassy walls. On Wednesday morning, they had brought in food, cooking equipment and mattresses, suggesting plans to stay, though these seem to have been put on hold.

The anti-American action comes after months of protests in Iraq against the government and the Iran-backed militias which support it. Many Iraqis complain that their country has become a battlefield for a proxy war for influence between Washington and Tehran, and their leaders are too beholden to outside powers.