- Tensions in the Gulf region soared to new heights after the US killed the top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike in Baghdad early Friday.
- Iran has vowed to take revenge on the US over Soleimani’s death, effectively threatening US civilians and troops in the Middle East.
- In warning its citizens to leave Iraq immediately, the US cited “heightened tensions” without mentioning the airstrike.
- US allies including the UK, France, and Germany said on Friday that the Soleimani strike was making the world more dangerous.
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The US is warning its citizens to leave Iraq immediately, citing “heightened tensions” in the surrounding region while not mentioning that its own airstrike was the trigger.
“Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, the US Embassy urges American citizens to heed the January 2020 Travel Advisory and depart Iraq immediately,” the US Embassy in Baghdad wrote in a Friday advisory.
“US citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land. Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all public consular operations are suspended until further notice. U.S. citizens should not approach the Embassy.”
The US State Department echoed the warning in a Friday-morning tweet.
The statement, however, did not mention the airstrike, conducted Friday morning local time, that killed the top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Iran's leadership has vowed to take revenge, and the country has multiple unconventional ways to do so, ranging from cyberattacks on US networks to assaults on US forces in the Gulf region.
The US strike on Soleimani came days after protesters angered by US airstrikes hurled stones and demonstrated outside the US Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, to which US forces responded by firing tear gas.
Pompeo says Americans are 'much safer,' but allies warn of a 'more dangerous world'
The Pentagon described the attack on Soleimani as a "decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad."
"The world is a much safer place today," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday morning. "And I can assure you that Americans in the region are much safer today after the demise of Qassem Soleimani."
But given Iran's insistence to fight back, and the US urgent warning for Americans to leave the region, it looks as if the airstrike is achieving the opposite effect in the immediate aftermath.
Many US allies are also warning that the Soleimani strike will risk the world going to war.
"We are waking up in a more dangerous world," France's deputy minister of foreign affairs told the local RTL radio on Friday morning, according to the Associated Press.
Similarly, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for de-escalation and warned that war with Iran was "in none of our interests."
Ulrike Demmer, a spokeswoman for the German government, also said "we are at a dangerous escalation point," the AP reported. Russia's foreign ministry called the strike "a reckless step that will lead to escalating tensions in the whole region."
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