US Summons Iraq's Ambassador Over Militia Attacks
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau summoned Iraq’s ambassador to Washington Thursday to formally condemn Iranian-backed militia attacks on US diplomatic facilities and personnel in Iraq.
The readout acknowledged Iraqi security forces had responded to some attacks — then immediately noted that “some elements associated with the Iraqi government continue to actively provide political, financial, and operational cover for the militias.” Landau called the April 8 ambush of US personnel an “egregious terrorist attack.”
This is the recurring trap Iraq has been in for years: a government trying to maintain relationships with both Washington and Tehran, with proxy forces operating with enough plausible deniability to complicate any clean accountability chain.
The timing — mid-ceasefire, with talks pending — makes the démarche partly symbolic. The US is signaling it’s tracking the attacks without escalating beyond a diplomatic summons. For now.