The State Department on Sunday said the US would remain “fully equipped to carry out its national security mission” in Iraq despite the evacuation of some embassy workers, as Republicans slammed the Obama administration over the growing Middle East crisis.
Responding to reports that embassy workers will be evacuated in the face of the continuing Islamic insurgency, the Pentagon confirmed some staff were being relocated.
But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "Overall, a substantial majority of the US 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, issued a statement which said: “At the request of the State Department, the US 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 US military has airlift assets at the ready.”
The statements came as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) fighters threatened Baghdad, the State Department warned US citizens in the country to “maintain security awareness at all times” and reports of the murder of captured government troops caused widespread anger among Shias.
Pictures posted on a militant website appeared to show 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. Before its lightning offensive, Isis had secured massive wealth and resources, the Guardian learned.
In Baghdad later on Sunday, a series of explosions killed at least 15 people and injured more than 30, police and hospital officials said.
Insurgents also seized Tal Afar, a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in the north west of the country, after heavy fighting. Residents reached by telephone said it had fallen.
"The city was overrun by militants. Severe fighting took place, and many people were killed. Shi'ite families have fled to the west and Sunni families have fled to the east," a city official who asked not to be identified told Reuters.
In Washington, Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading foreign policy hawk, said the US should “sit down and talk” with Iran over the crisis and attacked President Barack Obama for what he said was his “delusional and detached” response.
On Saturday, defence secretary Chuck Hagel ordered an aircraft carrier and two missile-carrying ships to the Persian Gulf, raising the possibility of imminent US air strikes. Obama, who on Friday said any strike would have to be coordinated with a political plan from Iraq's political leaders, was in California to attend a Democratic party function and deliver a commencement speech.
Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the House homeland security committee, told ABC's This Week: “Well, this is a crisis. It does call for a response, not going to Palm Springs for a fundraiser.”
Later on Sunday, Psaki released a statement on security at US embassies. The Obama administration faces ongoing congressional scrutiny of its response to an attack on a US facility in Benghazi in September 2012, in which four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, were killed.
Psaki said the US embassy in Baghdad remained open, and that staff would “continue to engage daily with Iraqis and their elected leaders – supporting them as they strengthen Iraq’s constitutional processes and defend themselves from imminent threats”.
She said the embassy was reviewing staffing and security requirements and US citizens in Iraq should “exercise caution” and “make their own contingency emergency plans; and maintain security awareness at all times”.
On Saturday, secretary of state John Kerry spoke to the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, by phone. The State Department said Kerry “stressed … that the president is examining a range of options that could help the Iraqi security forces push back [Isis] advances.”
Graham's demand for talks with Iran, made on CNN’s State of the Nation, represented a volte face from previous calls for the authorisation to declare war on the country.
On Friday, Obama ruled out sending ground forces back into Iraq.“If Baghdad falls, if the central government falls, a disaster awaits us of monumental proportions,” he said.
The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, on Saturday signalled an alignment of interests “if we see that the United States takes action against terrorist groups in Iraq”.
On Saturday, Iraqi officials told the Guardian Iran had sent 2,000 advance troops across the border. General Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran's Qods Force, is coordinating the defence of Baghdad. The US suspects the Qods Force of attacks on US troops during the Iraq war.
“Why did we deal with Stalin?” Graham asked. “Because he’s not as bad as Hitler. The Iranians can provide some assets to make sure that Baghdad doesn’t fall. We need to co-ordinate with the Iranians and the Turks need to get into the game.
“We should have discussions with Iran to make sure they don’t use this as an opportunity to seize control of parts of Iraq. They’re in this, we need to put a red line with Iran.”
“To ignore Iran and not tell them ‘Don’t take advantaged of this situation’ would be a mistake,” he said.
The senator also blasted the White House, arguing that the president's decision to withdraw troops from Iraq had led to the current crisis.
The last US troops left Iraq in 2011 after the failure of talks between prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and Obama over a longer-term presence.
Graham said “this stubborn-headed president we have who thinks he knows better than anybody else, who withdrew troops and exposed this country to the inevitable, needs to change his policies quickly”.
He added that Obama was “delusional” and “detached”. “The number of people who could die in this country from getting this wrong is going to be far greater than 4,000 [a reference to the number of US troops killed so far in Iraq, actually 4,424] because they are getting hold of weapons they did not have before,” he said.
Shia volunteers have left Basra for Baghdad to confront Isis.“The economic chaos to the world is going to be far greater than anything we spend on saving Iraq. This is another 9/11 in the making.”
Graham’s comments echo those of House Speaker John Boehner, who earlier this week accused Obama of "taking a nap" as Isis marched on Baghdad.
On ABC, McCaul said: “This al-Qaida faction, Isis in Syria and now in Iraq, is so extreme, that Ayman al-Zawahiri and core al-Qaida have denounced them. That's how dangerous they are.
“This is not some 'down the road' prospect. I would argue that not only is the threat great in Iraq and Syria but so [is it] to the homeland, because we have a lot of individuals over there with legal travel documents that are trained – and these are the vicious, the worst of the worst.
“If they get back into the United States or in western Europe against western targets, I see that as a biggest threat today.”
Graham said that if Isis took Baghdad, Syria and Iraq would become the “new staging area for an attack on America”.
“My biggest fear is that they will march for Jordan,” he said, a move that he said would leave “the whole Middle East in turmoil”.
Al-Maliki should resign, Graham said. The senator added that the US's priorities should be: “Stop the march on Baghdad, form a new government.”
He suggested the US should send former general and CIA director David Petraeus and former ambassador Crocker to form that new government.