The State Department is urging Americans in the Middle East to leave immediately.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s team released a statement warning of “serious safety risks” across the region, and told Americnas to “depart via commercial means.”
The warning covered American citizens who are currently in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE and Yemen.
The news came during the same night that the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was hit by two drones resulting in “limited fire and minor material damage to the building.” There were no reported injuries, per local and international news sources.
A security alert statement on the Embassy’s website read: “The U.S. Mission to Saudi Arabia is closed on Tuesday, March 3. All routine and emergency American Citizen Services appointments are cancelled. The shelter in place notification for Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dhahran remains in place and we recommend American citizens in the Kingdom also continue to shelter in place.
“Avoid the Embassy until further notice due to an attack on the facility. We continue to limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region.”
Iran has targeted several Gulf states following the U.S.-Israel strikes that killed Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and began the regional conflict.