US urges nationals to leave Middle East due to 'serious safety risks'

WASHINGTON - The US Department of State on Monday urged Americans to depart immediately from the Middle East "due to serious safety risks."

The department "urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks," Mora Namdar, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, wrote in a post on X.

The locations with "serious safety risks" include Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The United States and Israel began massive airstrikes against Iran on Saturday morning. Iran confirmed on Sunday that its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes the previous day.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that US objectives in the operation against Iran "can be achieved without ground forces."

"Right now, we're not postured for ground forces, but obviously the president has those options," he said.

"Our focus is on the destruction of their ballistic missile launchers, their ballistic missile stockpiles and their ballistic missile manufacturing capability, as well as their one-way attack drones and their Navy," he said.

On the same day, US President Donald Trump said that the military campaign against Iran has the "capability to go far longer" than the four to five weeks he projected during media interviews a day earlier.