Qatar today closed its airspace in what it called a "precautionary measure".
The move came after the US embassy in Qatar ordered its citizens to "shelter in place". The UK followed this, with both embassies saying the order was "out of an abundance of caution".
The Qatari government said the embassies' warnings did not "necessarily reflect the existence of specific threats". The country's foreign office said the airspace closure was undertaken "based on developments in the region". Tehran said today that US airstrikes have expanded the range of legitimate military targets for its armed forces, and Qatar hosts the US' largest military base in the Middle East.
Closure of Qatari airspace will make traversing the Mideast Gulf region by air more complicated. Air traffic tracking data show a complete absence of aircraft over Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran, with all flights from east to west diverting either north or south of this region.
