KUWAIT CITY/RIYADH/MANAMA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Several Gulf countries on Tuesday tightened security and took precautionary measures amid rising regional tensions.
Kuwait's Ministry of Interior on Tuesday called on citizens and expatriates to remain indoors during overnight hours as part of precautionary security measures.
According to the Kuwait News Agency, the ministry's advisory requests the public to stay at home from 12:00 midnight local time on Tuesday until 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, traffic on the King Fahd Causeway, which links Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, was suspended again on Tuesday, the King Fahd Causeway Authority said.
"In reference to the alerts issued by the National Early Warning Platform in the Eastern Region during the past hours, the movement of vehicles across the King Fahd Causeway has been suspended as a precautionary measure," the authority said in a statement posted on X.
Also in the day, the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain directed all U.S. government employees in Manama to shelter in place and advised American citizens in Bahrain to do the same until further notice, citing heightened regional security concerns.
In a security alert, the embassy said it was closely monitoring developments in the Middle East and would continue to update U.S. citizens so they could make decisions about their safety.
On Tuesday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened that Iran's "whole civilization will die tonight," the deadline he set for Iran to make a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, marking a possible sharp escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting on Feb. 28, Iran and its regional allies responded with attacks on Israeli and U.S. interests across the Middle East.
