US State Department orders 'non-emergency' staff to leave Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq

WASHINGTON: The US State Department said Tuesday it has ordered non-emergency personnel to leave Bahrain, Jordan and Iraq, as Iran retaliates against US-Israeli strikes.

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 a separate post, the department said its Iraq travel advisory was updated to reflect that it had on Monday “ordered non-emergency US government employees to leave Iraq due to security concerns.” It did not mention their relatives.

The growing war began on Saturday after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran that Tehran said killed dozens of civilians and the country’s supreme leader, sparking retaliatory salvos.

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.