Washington: The State Department on Friday told US citizens to leave Iraq "immediately," after an American strike killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
"Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, we urge US citizens to depart Iraq immediately," the State Department tweeted.
"Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the US Embassy compound, all consular operations are suspended. US citizens should not approach the Embassy."
Tensions in Iraq were already running high after pro-Iranian protesters laid siege the US embassy earlier this week.
The US announced earlier Friday that it had killed the commander of the Iranian Quds Force in a strike on Baghdad's international airport, which also killed the deputy chief of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.
In Tehran, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against American "crimes". Women and men, many of them elderly, took part in the procession, some holding up portraits of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"The axis of any evil in America, the motto of religion and the Koran is death to America," they said in unison.
News of the death of Soleimani, one of Iran's most popular public figures, also saw people hold impromptu gatherings in his central hometown of Kerman.
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