DOHA: Some personnel have been asked to depart the United States&#39; Al Udeid military base in Qatar, two diplomatic sources told AFP on Wednesday, with the Gulf state saying &quot;regional tensions&quot; were behind the move.&nbsp;The decision comes after Washington&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/trump-keeps-iran-air-strikes-on-table-white-house-says" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">threatened</a>&nbsp;to respond to an Iranian government crackdown on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/trump-warns-of-very-strong-action-if-iran-hangs-protesters" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">protests</a>&nbsp;while Tehran has said it would strike US military and shipping assets in the event of a new attack.&nbsp;The measure was taken &quot;in response to the current regional tensions&quot;, Qatar&#39;s International Media Office said in a statement.&nbsp;&quot;Qatar continues to implement all necessary measures to safeguard the security and safety including actions related to the protection of critical infrastructure and military facilities,&quot; it added.&nbsp;A diplomatic source told AFP earlier that a number of personnel were asked to leave the base by Wednesday evening.&nbsp;A second source confirmed the information, also on condition of anonymity.&nbsp;The US embassy in Qatar declined to comment on personnel movement at Al Udeid.&nbsp;In June, Iran targeted the United States&#39; Al Udeid military base in Qatar in response to earlier American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.&nbsp;Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iran&#39;s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned US President Donald Trump on Wednesday that the strike on the base had demonstrated &quot;Iran&#39;s will and capability to respond to any attack&quot;.&nbsp;Doha was able to leverage the unprecedented attack on its soil to help deliver a speedy truce between Washington and Tehran.&nbsp;Washington has repeatedly said the United States is considering air strikes on Iran to stop a crackdown on protesters.&nbsp;Trump on Tuesday said in a CBS News interview that the United States would act if Iran began hanging protesters.&nbsp;Iranian authorities called the American warnings a &quot;pretext for military intervention&quot;.&nbsp;Mass protests in Iran since Thursday have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.&nbsp;Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.&nbsp;&quot;The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands,&quot; IHR&#39;s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.

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Qatar said some US personnel were asked to leave Al Udeid base due to regional tensions, amid US threats over Iran’s protest crackdown and Tehran’s warnings, following earlier Iranian strikes and unrest killing hundreds nationwide.

Articles tagged with "united states"

Qatar says some personnel departing US base over 'regional tensions': AFP sources

Qatar says some personnel departing US base over 'regional tensions': AFP sources