A picture taken in June 2019 shows the entrance of Zubair oilfield, north of Basra, Iraq, in a key oil-producing region which hosts Iraqi and foreign companies, including US company Exxon Mobil. Credit: Hussein Faleh/AFP via Getty Images

Iraq’s Oil Ministry has confirmed that “a number of employees with US citizenship” working for oil companies in southern Iraq would depart the country “in response to the request of their government.”

“The ministry asserts that the conditions are normal in oil fields throughout Iraq. Production and export were not affected,” it said in a statement added.

Earlier on Friday, the US State Department – Bureau of Consular Affairs said American citizens should depart Iraq immediately, as a result of heightened tensions in Iraq and the region in the wake of the US attack that killed an Iranian military commander.