The State Department urged citizens to leave Iraq as soon as possible and avoid all U.S. facilities within the country.
The U.S. is withdrawing all non-emergency government employees from Iraq as tensions continue to mount between Washington and Iran, amid allies' warnings that war could break out inadvertently if concrete steps towards de-escalation are not taken.
The alert comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and Washington. Last week, National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group, B-52 bombers and a Patriot missile battery would be deployed to the region in response to intelligence suggesting Iran or its proxies were preparing to target U.S. interests.
“These are all allegations which are being produced by the same people who, in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, did the same,” Ravanchi told NBC News, in an apparent reference to Bolton who worked in George W. Bush's administration during the Iraq War. While President Donald Trump has remained characteristically belligerent, U.S. allies have expressed concern at recent escalations. On Tuesday, the British Major General Chris Ghika—a senior officer in the U.S.-backed coalition fighting ISIS—contradicted the White House’s warnings that the threat from Iran is growing.
Some of these militias are drawn from the Shiite insurgents that fought against the U.S. occupation of Iraq from 2003 onwards. Iran funded, trained and armed these groups in resisting the Americans, and the U.S. has blamed Tehran for direct involvement in more than 600 American military deaths during the occupation.
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