Hundreds Of U.S. Citizens Have Fled Iran Amid Israeli Strikes (Video)

Protest — Demonstrators in Tehran set fire to U.S. and Israeli flags on Friday. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

By Adam Taylor, Angie Orellana Hernandez and Hannah Natanson

Hundreds of U.S. citizens have left Iran through its land borders since the start of Israel’s deadly assault on the country last week, according to a State Department cable circulated to diplomats Friday and obtained by The Washington Post.

The cable marks a rare, if private, admission by the U.S. government that large numbers of Americans are in harm’s way as President Donald Trump ruminates whether the United States will join Israel’s campaign to eradicate Iran’s nuclear program. These citizens are at risk not only from Israeli strikes, which local authorities claim have killed hundreds of civilians, but also from the Iranian regime itself.

The cable notes that multiple U.S. citizens trying to flee have encountered “delays and harassment” from Iranian authorities and that there are a small number of unconfirmed reports of Americans being detained and imprisoned. The cable said U.S. diplomats were tracking these reports closely.

Separately, the cable noted that Turkmenistan, which shares a long border with Iran, had not approved more than 100 requests from the Embassy in Ashgabat for U.S. citizens to enter the country. The State Department was now advising U.S. citizens within Iran to find other routes to leave the country, the cable noted.

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