CENTCOM Not Informed on Evacuation of Hundreds of US Staffers From Iraqi Balad Base - Press Office

The US military is preparing to evacuate hundreds of civilian military contractors working for Lockheed Martin and Sallyport Global from an Iraqi military base, Reuters reported earlier on Friday, citing three Iraqi military sources.

According to Reuters, citing an unnamed military official familiar with the matter, the US military informed Iraqi officials that they would begin evacuating about half of the 800 civilian employees who work for both companies at Balad. The two-stage evacuation reportedly will be carried out by a military aircraft.
The US-led coalition fighting the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, however, cannot confirm reports of US plans to evacuate civilian military contractor staff from the Balad military base in Iraq, the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) press office said Friday.
"We are aware of open source reporting however, at this time we have no information to validate such claim [...] For information regarding statements made by those assigned to the Iraqi military or for questions pertaining to Balad Air Base are best addressed by the Iraqi Security Forces. Questions regarding the alleged future movement of employees are best addressed by those companies", the press office said.
The Balad military base was reportedly hit by at least three mortar shells last week. No entity has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two other military facilities hosting US forces were also reportedly hit by projectiles in the past week in unclaimed attacks. On Wednesday, a rocket hit a site near the southern city of Basra used by US energy giant ExxonMobil.
Last fall, the US closed its consulate in the Iraqi city of Basra, citing threats from Iran. Washington accused Iran of attacking the US consulate and embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The news comes amid rising regional tension between the United States and Iran.
On Thursday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps downed a US spy drone for violating Iran’s airspace, an assertion denied by Washington.
Trump initially said Iran made "a very big mistake", but later told reporters he doubted the downing of the drone was intentional.
On Friday, Trump said that the US military was ready to strike targets in Iran in response to the downing of a US Navy drone but added that he called off the attacks at the last minute because they were not proportionate.
In a separate statement, Trump suggested that he is no hurry to respond to the attack, adding that the US military is prepared should the need arise.
Following the incident, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seen by Sputnik, called on the international community to encourage the US to halt its unlawful and destabilizing actions in the Persian Gulf region.
Relations between the US and Iran have become increasingly hostile since the US unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Over the past few weeks, the US has stepped up its military presence in the Middle East, citing alleged "threats" from Iran.