FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Security Forces vehicles line up in the street outside the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraq January 1, 2020. DoD/Lt. Col. Adrian Weale/Handout via REUTERS

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States embassy in Baghdad urged on Friday all citizens to depart Iraq immediately, hours after the U.S. killed Iranian Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in an air strike.

“Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, the U.S. Embassy urges American citizens to heed the January 2020 Travel Advisory and depart Iraq immediately. U.S. citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land,” it said in a statement.