BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) – The United States is preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and will allow military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, U.S. and Iraqi sources said on Wednesday.
The four U.S. and two Iraqi sources did not specify which security risks had prompted the decision to evacuate and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Oil prices rose on the report of the evacuation.
The United States has a military presence in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, a U.S. official said. Another U.S. official said that was mostly relevant to family members located in Bahrain — where the bulk of them are based.
“The State Department is set to have an ordered departure for (the) U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The intent is to do it through commercial means, but the U.S. military is standing by if help is requested,” a third U.S. official said.
Advertisement ยท Scroll to continue An Iraqi foreign ministry official said a “partial evacuation” of U.S. embassy staff had been confirmed due to what the official termed “potential security concerns related to possible regional tensions.”
Another U.S. official said that there was no change in operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East and that no evacuation order had been issued for employees or families linked to the U.S. embassy in Qatar, which was operating as usual. Oil futures climbed $3 on reports of the Baghdad evacuation with Brent crude futures at $69.18 a barrel. Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and its arch regional foe Iran, hosts 2,500 U.S. troops and has Tehran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces.