The United States on Sunday ordered the evacuation of non-essential staff from its embassy in Baghdad and consulate in Erbil, urging its citizens to avoid traveling to Iraq for fear of being attacked in light of the Israeli war on Gaza.
The US State Department said in a statement that the evacuation order "is due to the increasing security threats to US crews and interests," noting that the work of the US mission in Iraq is limited to supporting the Americans there.
The department called on Americans to avoid travel to Iraq because of concerns about what it called terrorism and kidnapping.
In the past few days, there have been frequent drone attacks on Ain al-Asad air base, which is located in Anbar province (western Iraq) and houses US and Iraqi forces.
These attacks come after Iraqi factions threatened to target US interests in Iraq against the backdrop of US support for Israel in its war on the Gaza Strip.
In Syria, there were two rocket attacks on the Omar oil field and the gas pipeline to the Coneco natural gas plant, two sites used by US forces as bases in the northeastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.
The Pentagon also announced that a US warship intercepted missiles and drones launched from Yemen towards Israel.