US State Dept orders non-emergency staff to leave six Mideast countries

Washington: The US State Department said Tuesday it had ordered non-emergency staff to leave six Middle Eastern countries, as Iran retaliated against US-Israeli strikes.

The war in the Middle East began on Saturday when joint US-Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader, causing Tehran to launch retaliatory salvos across the region.

The department said it had updated travel advisories for Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates "to reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel".


The advisories for five of the countries cited an "ongoing threat of drone and missile attacks from Iran", while the notice for Iraq cited "security concerns".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards targeted a US 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 the capital Baghdad, many dressed in black, attempted Sunday to storm the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located.

In Jordan, the US embassy in the capital Amman said Monday it had temporarily evacuated its staff due to an unspecified threat.

The US embassy in Kuwait said Tuesday it was closed until further notice, a day after an AFP correspondent saw smoke rising from the mission following Iranian attacks on the country.

AFP journalists in Qatar heard explosions on Tuesday, while in the UAE, falling debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire at an oil storage zone.

The State Department earlier urged Americans to leave all of the Middle East from Egypt eastward due to safety concerns.