The United States has ordered the evacuation of non-emergency government personnel and their family members from Bahrain, Jordan, and Iraq, as the escalating conflict with Iran threatens American interests across the Middle East.
The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it has ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members from Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan. The order comes as the U.S. monitors security risk linked to its conflict with Iran.
The department, in posts on X, said it had updated travel advisories for Bahrain and Jordan “to reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency US government personnel and family members of government personnel”.
In an updated Iraq travel advisory, the department says it had “ordered non-emergency US government employees to leave Iraq due to security concerns” the day before.
Additionally, the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait announced via its official X (formerly Twitter) account that it will remain closed until further notice.
The evacuation orders come after Iran launched retaliatory strikes following massive US-Israeli attacks on Iranian facilities. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards targeted a United States air base in Bahrain, the Islamic republic’s elite force said in a statement carried on Tuesday by the official IRNA news agency.
In Iraq, hundreds of protesters in capital Baghdad, many dressed in black, attempted Sunday to storm the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located, after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
In Jordan, the US embassy in capital Amman said Monday it had temporarily evacuated its staff due to an unspecified threat. The kingdom said it has also intercepted more than a dozen missiles since Iran started retaliatory attacks on Saturday.
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The State Department’s directive represents a significant escalation in the US response to mounting regional threats. Mora Namdar, the State Department’s assistant secretary for consular affairs, said US citizens should leave using available commercial transportation “due to safety risks”.
The United States Department of State called on Americans to immediately depart more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, on Monday amid an ongoing escalation in the region.
Monday’s advisory applies to Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
The US State Department has also activated an inter-agency emergency task force to manage the situation and coordinate the United States’ response to the conflict, a US official said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a video message emphasizing that the safety and security of US citizens is the State Department’s highest priority. “At my direction, the department has activated a 24/7 task force that is providing American citizens with up-to-the-minute safety and security information,” Rubio said.
The evacuations underscore the severity of the security situation across the Middle East as the US-Iran conflict intensifies, with American diplomatic facilities and military bases facing direct threats from Iranian forces and their regional allies.