Elite Iraqi troops secure US embassy after attack

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Elite Iraqi troops deployed to secure the US embassy Thursday, a day after a pro-Iran mob laid siege to it in dramatic scenes that overshadowed months of anti-government grassroots protests.

The unprecedented attack on the American mission in Baghdad -- in which intruders threw rocks, laid fires and graffitied walls -- sparked fears of a wider proxy war between Iran and the United States, both of them close allies of Iraq.

Supporters of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi military force laid siege to the embassy in outrage at US air strikes that killed 25 of their fighters, but pulled back on Wednesday after an order from the group.

On Thursday, more than a dozen black armoured vehicles of the US-trained Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service deployed on the embassy's streets in the capital's Green Zone to reinforce security there.

Pro-Iran slogans still covered the entire length of the thick concrete walls breached by the mob.

But the Hashed flags planted by protesters on the embassy's outer walls, as well as photographs of the killed fighters put up in mourning, had been cleared away according to an AFP correspondent.

Embassy staff could be seen cleaning up a reception area the protesters had broken into and torched, and cranes were used to move rocks and debris they had pelted at the embassy.

The attack sparked comparisons with the 1979 hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran and the deadly 2012 attack on the US consulate in Libya's second city Benghazi.

The Pentagon warned that the Iran-backed group that stormed the embassy would carry out more attacks on US facilities -- and would regret it.

"The provocative behaviour has been out there for months," said US Defence Secretary Mark Esper.

"So, do I think they may do something? Yes. And they will likely regret it.

"We are prepared to exercise self-defence, and we are prepared to deter further bad behaviour from these groups, all of which are sponsored, directed and resourced by Iran."