The is a developing situation, and updates will be posted as they arrive.
Updated at 12:10, 09/01/2019
STA, 8 January 2020 - The six Slovenian soldiers stationed in Erbil in northern Iraq in the German-led international operation Inherent Resolve will be evacuated after Iran attacked Erbil airport in retaliation for the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, the Defence Ministry announced on Wednesday.
The evacuation will be conducted in cooperation with the German partners, the ministry said.
The supreme commander of the armed forces, President Borut Pahor, and Prime Minister Marjan Šarec have been informed of the decision.
Pahor, Defence Minister Karl Erjavec and Major General Alenka Ermenc, the chief of the general staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, talked to the Slovenian troops in Erbil via video call early this morning.
They said they were all well and they had been in the base's shelter during the attack on the airport in the proximity of the Stefan base, the ministry said.
The prime minister's office said in a press release that Šarec had given an order "for all necessary measures to be taken to protect our forces, including moving, evacuating them from the area".
The office added the evacuation would be conducted simultaneously with the evacuation of soldiers from other partner countries that are participating in the operation in northern Iraq.
Foreign Minister Miro Cerar welcomed the decision to evacuate the soldiers on Twitter and again called for easing of tensions. "It is important that the soldiers are not injured and are feeling fine," he wrote.
The minister also announced he would attend on Friday an extraordinary meeting of EU's foreign ministers where they would determine further action.
Iran fired multiple missiles at two US military targets in Iraq on Tuesday night, the al-Asad airbase north of Baghdad and Erbil in the north of the country, where Slovenian soldiers were stationed.
