The U.S. Department of State on Monday told non-emergency employees in its embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and its staff in the consulate in southeastern Turkey, to leave the region amid Iranian missile attacks throughout the Middle East.
“On March 9, 2026, the Department of State ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and U.S. government employee family members to leave Consulate General Adana out of an abundance of caution,” the Adana consulate wrote in a statement.
It was published hours before the Turkish Ministry of National Defense issued a statement saying that “A ballistic missile fired from Iran that entered Turkish airspace was neutralized by NATO air and missile defense elements deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Iran was said to have fired at Turkey for the first time on March 4, though the Islamic Republic’s army denied this.
The State Department also raised on Monday its travel advisory for southeast Turkey to “Level 4 - Do Not Travel.” The travel advisory for the rest of Turkey remained at “Level 2 - Exercise Increased Caution,” the State Department said.
On Sunday, the Department of State “ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and U.S. government employee family members to leave Saudi Arabia,” the State Department said in a statement on Monday, citing “safety risks.”
The change amended last week’s State Department “authorization” for the same people to leave.
The changes followed continued attacks by Iran on neighboring countries, 11 of which said they had been targeted by Iranian drones, rockets or missiles.
Bahrain’s Bapco petroleum firm said Iran had attacked its oil refinery complex on Monday, Reuters reported. Bapco’s 380,000 barrels-per-day Sitra refinery buys Saudi crude oil transported via a pipeline between the two countries. The disruption in Bapco’s operations deprived Saudi Arabia of another outlet for its production, Reuters reported.
The Iranian strike set Bahrain’s Al-Ma’ameer facility ablaze, forcing Bahrain to join Qatar and Kuwait in suspending shipments.
The Islamic Republic has fired hundreds of projectiles at its neighbors, in addition to Israel, in what analysts see as an attempt to create international pressure on the U.S. and Israel to end or diminish their attack on Iran’s regime, which Israel and the U.S. launched on Feb. 28.
On Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani said his country “would like to see a de-escalation” and “a diplomatic solution,” while adding, “We need to ensure, first, that Iran should stop all attacks against Gulf countries.”
Iran fired projectiles on Saturday night and Sunday at several neighboring countries, including Kuwait, where a drone strike started a large fire at a government building, and Bahrain, where a desalination plant was hit.
Footage from Kuwait showed flames engulfing the Public Institution for Social Security building in Kuwait City, the BBC reported. Kuwait’s army said two officers were killed in a strike on the country Sunday.
At least 14 people have died in Iranian attacks across the Persian Gulf, according to a New York Times tally of official casualty figures on Sunday. Ten were civilians, all foreign nationals, including an 11-year-old girl killed in Kuwait. Iranian projectiles have killed 14 people in Israel since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28.
Israel on Sunday struck Iranian petroleum infrastructure for the first time since Feb. 28, destroying about 30 oil storage facilities overnight Saturday and Sunday, according to Israeli media reports.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that “Iranian aggression indiscriminately attacked civilian targets and caused material damage to a water desalination plant following a drone attack.”
