00:01Caught in the crossfire from both sides,
00:04Iraq is treading a particularly fine line amid war in the Middle East.
00:08Hosting US interests and Iran-backed militia groups,
00:12it is the only country facing strikes from both Washington and Tehran.
00:17Since the beginning of the war,
00:18Iran-backed militia groups and Tehran's Revolutionary Guard Corps
00:22have carried out nearly daily drone and missile attacks
00:25against American interests across the country.
00:30Including military bases in Baghdad and Erbil airports,
00:34as well as diplomatic facilities.
00:36These images show the US Embassy being targeted in the Iraqi capital.
00:41The autonomous Kurdistan region,
00:43home to American troops and a US consulate,
00:46has also been a significant target,
00:48as well as oil fields and energy infrastructure.
00:52The Iran-backed Iraqi militias unite under the loose alliance of the Islamic resistance
00:57and have vowed to defend Tehran.
01:00Meanwhile, their bases across the country have been pounded by airstrikes.
01:06Anti-US and Israel charts were heard as hundreds of people mourn the deaths
01:11of members of the Popular Mobilization Forces killed in an airstrike last week.
01:16The US and Israel have not announced launching airstrikes in Iraq,
01:20but have been accused of doing so.
01:22Iraq's government has told the US that it should not be used as a launch pad
01:27for attacks for the war in the Middle East.
01:30Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the US and Iran,
01:33faces pressure to maintain neutrality,
01:36with different political groups supporting closer ties to both sides.
01:39an internal division that is being exacerbated by the ongoing war in Iran.
01:45If it lasts, Iraq is at risk of political paralysis and economic downfall,
01:50which could unravel the country's hard-fought relative stability.
01:53Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U
01:54.S.
