WASHINGTON has advised non-essential staff to leave its consulate near the southern Turkish city of Adana near a key NATO base and ordered US citizens to leave “southeast Turkey”, the US embassy to Ankara said Monday.
Since the US-Israeli attacks began on February 28, Iran has retaliated with missile and drone strikes across the Middle East in a bid to hit US assets.
So far, Turkey appears to have been spared, despite the fact that US troops are stationed at several of its bases.
One is Incirlik air base, an important NATO facility that has been used by US troops for decades which is located just 10 kilometres (six miles) outside the city of Adana.
“On March 9, 2026, the Department of State ordered non-emergency US government employees and US government employee family members to leave Consulate General Adana due to the safety risks,” the embassy said on X.
It referenced a State Department travel advisory saying: “Americans in southeast Turkey are strongly encouraged to depart now.”
On Wednesday, NATO troops intercepted a Turkey-bound ballistic missile launched from Iran that prompted a sharp warning from Ankara.
NATO has since said it strengthened its “ballistic missile defence posture” as Iran steps up its strikes across the region.
Ankara’s defence ministry said NATO’s defence systems had intercepted and neutralised “a ballistic missile fired from Iran and detected heading towards Turkey” but added no further details.
Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the missile was spotted by Spanish troops manning a Patriot missile battery, who are based at Incirlik.
They had “detected and reported the missile attack”, though they were not the ones that shot it down, she said.
