Shafaq News- Baghdad/ Erbil

The US Embassy in Baghdad and its Consulate General in Erbil issued a security alert to American citizens on Wednesday morning, amid heightened regional tensions and an exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran.

The alert urged Americans in the Middle East to exercise heightened caution and to prepare for possible flight cancellations, border or airspace closures, and wider travel disruption.

At dawn on Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had carried out combined missile and drone strikes on US bases in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The IRGC claimed the strikes destroyed a maintenance facility and technical equipment storage sites and knocked out the control system for a US surveillance balloon. It also said fuel tanks were set ablaze at one base and an unspecified number of US personnel were killed.