US consular staff to leave Karachi, Lahore

The US said on Wednesday it ordered non-emergency staff at two Pakistani consulates to leave the country, and granted permission for staff to leave missions in Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and Oman as Iran retaliates to US-Israeli raids.

The US State Department ordered non-emergency US government employees and the family members of US government personnel from US consulates in Lahore and Karachi to leave Pakistan due to "safety risks", the US embassy in Pakistan said in a statement. It said there was no change to the status of its embassy in the capital Islamabad.

The department also "authorized non-emergency US government employees and US government employee family members to leave" Saudi Arabia, Oman and Cyprus "due to safety risks".

On Tuesday, the department said that it was taking "historic action" to assist citizens, who wish to depart the Middle East and return to the United States.

It said that in the past several days more than "9,000 American citizens have safely returned from the Middle East, including over 300 from Israel."

The United States and Israel launched the attack on Saturday and quickly killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two days after US envoys had been speaking to Iran in Geneva on a nuclear accord.

Since then, Iran has expanded its retaliatory missile and drone barrage across the Middle East, hitting on Tuesday a US consulate and base as the United States and Israel said they had pummeled key sites inside Tehran.

Meanwhile, tight security around the US embassy in Islamabad and consulates in major cities is still in place, and access routes to the mission remain closed for general public for the fourth consecutive day. Rangers and police personnel have been deployed around the consulate as well as on all routes leading to the facility.

In Karachi, the road from PIDC Chowk to MT Khan Road towards Sultanabad has been sealed off with containers. The route from Tower to Mai Kolachi is also closed.

However, the road from Boat Basin to Mai Kolachi has been reopened for small vehicles.