US issues advisory asking Americans to leave Middle East immediately

Amid Iran’s increasing attacks on Gulf countries where US military bases are located, the US State Department on Monday urged American citizens to immediately leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mora Namdar, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs,  posted a tweet, urging Americans  to quickly leave the Middle East via commercial transportation due the security risks. She urged, “Americans to ‘DEPART NOW’ from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks.”

Namdar also urged American citizens to remain updated regarding the situation. She wrote, “ENROLL in step.state.gov to get the latest security updates from the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.”

She also posted a photo in which those gulf countries' names are written from where Americans have to leave immediately which includes Kuwait, Bahrain, South Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, Syria, Yemen,  and  Israel, West Bank and  Gaza.

Embassy evacuated: The US Embassy in Amman, Jordan, announced early Monday morning that its staff had left due to threats.

Emergency Task Force: The US has activated an inter-agency emergency task force to handle the situation and respond to the conflict.

On Saturday, the US and Israel carried out strikes on various targets in Iran, killing several top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In response, Tehran also attacked US  bases in Gulf countries.