Hundreds of protesters have smashed windows, set fire to outbuildings and overturned vehicles outside the US Embassy in Baghdad.

US airstrikes earlier in the week, and Tuesday's embassy attack, have created new tensions between allies Washington and Baghdad, with Iraqi police and soldiers among those killed and wounded in the strikes.

They come at a time of unrest as mass protests across Iraq challenge the nation's precarious government.

Protesters set a sentry box ablaze in front of the US embassy building in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Protesters use a pipe to break the bullet-proof glass windows at the US embassy in Baghdad.

A crowd of protesters demonstrate outside the US embassy in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.