It comes just as top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was martyred in a US airstrike in the capital, causing a prominent Iraqi cleric to call an anti-US army to arms.
Soleimani’s assassination was ordered by President Donald Trump. In a statement, the embassy said today, ‘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. ‘US citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land
The statement also added that US citizens should ‘not approach the embassy’, while the consulate general in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, would be open for appointments. After Soleimani’s death, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr tweeted: ‘I, as the official of the Iraqi National Resistance, give an order to the readiness of the Mujahideen, especially the Imam Mahdi Army and the Promised Today Brigade and whoever commands our order from the national disciplined factions to be fully prepared to protect Iraq.’
MNA/PR