UK plans major emergency evacuation for Brits in the Middle East | UK | News
The Foreign Office is reportedly planning a massive evacuation of Britons in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of British citizens are currently at risk as Iran retaliates following US and Israeli attacks.
Yesterday morning, strikes began in Tehran with the aim of changing the regime, with the Israeli spy agency Mossad calling for an uprising on X (formerly Twitter). Religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an attack on his compound, state media confirmed hours later.
Preliminary figures are that 201 people died and 747 were injured; 153 of them died in an attack on a school. Iran is now retaliating with attacks on Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE. State Department officials are believed to be working on an emergency evacuation plan if airspace in the Middle East remains closed. Britons are being told to stay put and follow the instructions of local authorities while listening to advice from the Foreign Office.
Those in Bahrain, Israel, Palestine, Qatar and the UAE were told to register their location online with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More than 76,000 Brits have already registered their location, the majority in the UAE.
This is believed to be the largest-scale use of the “register your presence” app, which has been used before in international crises but never for this many people.
One possibility is evacuation by road to neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia, where airspace remains open.
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The UAE said 167 ballistic missiles and 541 unmanned aerial vehicles were launched into the country from Iran. Three people died and 58 people were injured.
Israel reported that Iranian missiles killed nine people, while the United States reported that three American military personnel were killed and five were seriously injured.
It appears that no British citizens have been killed or injured in the clashes so far. Defense Secretary John Healey said 300 soldiers were within “a few hundred metres” of an Iranian attack on a base in Bahrain.
