Outcry as Muslim Ilhan Omar likens US, Israel to Taliban

US congresswoman Ilhan Omar faced broad condemnation Thursday including from her Democratic Party's leadership after the Muslim lawmaker accused the United States and Israel of "unthinkable atrocities" comparable to those of Hamas and the Taliban.

Omar, who in 2016 became one of the first two Muslim women elected to the US Congress, has antagonized members of her party in the past with comments denounced as anti-Semitic or anti-Israel.

But top Republicans and Democrats alike have seized on her recent criticism of the United States to demand she clarify her remarks, with some calling outright for punishment including being stripped of her House of Representatives committee assignments.

Twelve Jewish House Democrats issued a public letter of disapproval against a member of their own party, writing that "equating the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban is as offensive as it is misguided."

At a House hearing on Monday, Omar -- who was born in Somalia and immigrated to the United States as a refugee in the mid-1990s -- grilled Secretary of State Antony Blinken over accountability for victims of crimes against humanity.

She then followed up with a tweet that read: "We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban."

Amid the firestorm, the six-member House Democratic leadership team headed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a rare public rebuke of a fellow Democrat, even as they acknowledged that criticism of US human rights policy is protected speech.

Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy offered more vehement criticism.

"Rep. Omar's anti-Semitic & anti-American comments are abhorrent," he said.

The 38-year-old Minneapolis congresswoman, who has repeatedly criticized Israel's policies towards Palestinians, pushed back Thursday.

She said her earlier remarks were related to an open case against Israel, the United States, Hamas and the Taliban in the International Criminal Court.