UPDATE - Poland evacuates its ambassador from Iraq

UPDATES WITH JAPAN’S TEMPORARY CLOSING OF ITS EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD, CHANGES DECK

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA (AA) - Following Iran's attack on two U.S. bases in Iraq, Poland evacuated its ambassador in Iraq, according to Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, local media reported on Wednesday.

Czaputowicz told Radio ZET that Beata Peksa, the Polish ambassador to Iraq, has been evacuated and returned to Poland

It was also reported that the evacuation took place at the request of British diplomats, because the Polish embassy is located in the international zone of the British embassy’s premises.

Meanwhile, Slovenian Foreign Ministry announced on Twitter that it is coordinating with Germany to transfer its soldiers stationed in Iraq to a safer location, without clarifying the location.

***Later in the day, the Japanese Foreign Ministry announced that it temporarily closed its embassy in the capital Iraq following airstrikes on the U.S. bases, according to the Kyodo news agency.

*** Also, the country urged its citizens to leave Iraq and refrain from traveling to Iran as tensions rise in the region.

Early Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against the U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq.

The missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military bases where the U.S. military and coalition personnel are stationed at al-Asad and Erbil.

Iran said Wednesday’s attack came in response to the U.S. killing of the head of Iran's elite Quds Force Qasem Soleimani, last week.

His death marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have often been at a fever pitch since President Donald Trump chose in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw Washington from a 2015 nuclear pact world powers struck with Tehran.

Today’s attacks continued a series of tit-for-tat recriminations between the U.S. and Iranian-backed forces that began with the killing of an American contractor at a U.S. base in Iraq late last month.