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Iran has ramped up efforts to target US personnel, and lethal plots by Tehran against American citizens have reached \u201cadvanced \u200bstages\u201d, a senior intelligence official in the Trump administration warned in a memo seen \u200cby Reuters.<\/strong><\/p>\n The alert from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton came after Washington scaled back staffing at its mission in Saudi Arabia earlier this week in response to intensified attacks by Iran-allied Houthi forces.<\/span><\/p>\n Those attacks on one \u200bfront of the nearly eight-month-old regional conflict triggered by the Iran warhave coincided with a rise in \u200battacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier this month, sources told \u2060Reuters Iran was preparing a more forceful response if the United States resumes large-scale military attacks on \u200bits territory.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSpecifically, through various channels, we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to \u200btarget US personnel,\u201d Clayton wrote to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a message dated October 23.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain \u200bother countries,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n CIA Director John Ratcliffe was also copied in on the unclassified memo which \u200bwas first reported by Axios.<\/span><\/p>\n The State Department on Wednesday ordered non-emergency government employees and their family members to leave \u200cUS diplomatic \u2060missions in Saudi Arabia and planned to withdraw family members from a number of other missions in the region, US officials told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n On Saturday, the US State Department updated travel advisories for more than a dozen countries across the Gulf and Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United \u200bArab Emirates, Iraq and \u200bIsrael, citing an increased \u2060threat from Iran-aligned Houthis.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to our staffing at embassies, we constantly evaluate new information about the security environment,\u201d a US official said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe threat \u200bof Houthi attacks and of Iranian terror plots targeting US officials are \u200binforming our \u2060decisions on staffing adjustments for embassies on RO Status in the region,\u201d the official said.<\/span><\/p>\n The Restricted Operations Status provides the State Department more flexibility in personnel decisions without having to publicly announce a change \u2060in the \u200bstatus of a mission.<\/span><\/p>\n