Thousands of US citizens escape Middle East on charter plane – LIVE UPDATES

A charter flight that has picked up American citizens in the Middle East is on its way back to the United States, the State Department announced.

Department officials have helped about 6,500 people try to get out of the region, said Tommy Pigott, the agency’s deputy spokesman.

The press release did not say where the flight originated from or where it was going, although the department has said it is arranging additional charter aircraft from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.

Kurdish fighters have reportedly launched a ground invasion of Iran as they look to topple the Iranian regime.

Thousands of soldiers have taken position in Iran as part of a military offensive, according to Fox News, after being secretly armed by the US.

An official, cited by Israeli network I24, claimed fighters began taking combat positions inside Iranian territory on Monday.

‘The ground military movements by Kurdish forces against Iran have already started since the midnight of March 2,’ they added.

The official claimed fighters have moved into positions around the southern mountains of Marivan in western Iran.

The US and Israel are thought to be seeking an armed uprising and have been smuggling weapons to Kurdish volunteers since last year.

Between four and seven US-Israeli helicopters were said to have conducted an airdrop in the Najaf desert, Iraq, on Wednesday.

A Kurdish Iranian dissident group based in northern Iraq said some of their forces had lined up by the Iranian border, in Sulaymaniyah province, on standby.

Khalil Nadiri, an official with the Kurdistan Freedom Party, said Kurdish opposition group leaders had been contacted by US officials regarding a potential operation

It was reported that an on-the-ground rebellion could begin in the coming days after the American-Israeli offensive struck western Iranian security targets to degrade their capabilities.

Kurdish forces operate across Iraq, Syria, and Iran and control parts of the region.

Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, sprung into action on Wednesday when Brian McGinnis interrupted a Senate Armed Services Sub-Committee hearing.

McGinnis, an ex-Marine now running a third party campaign for Senate in North Carolina, denounced the battle in Iran as a war being fought for Israel.

New Zealand’s government will deploy two military planes to the Middle East so that New Zealanders can be evacuated when conditions permit, officials said Thursday.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defense Minister Judith Collins said in a statement that the government was also speaking to commercial airlines, including to discuss charter flight options. Commercial services from Dubai to Auckland, New Zealand, are not currently operating.

There are about 3,000 New Zealanders known to be living in the Middle East, officials said.

‘We cannot be sure when and how any civilian evacuation operations might be possible, but we want to be ready if and when conditions on the ground make them possible,’ Peters said.

The US Defense Department has identified the two remaining soldiers who were killed in Kuwait as Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California.

Iranian jets were just two minutes away from bombing al-Udeid Air Base, the US’ biggest in the Middle East, before Qatari planes shot them down, CNN reports.

The bombers were visually identified and photographed ‘carrying bombs and guided munitions’ before they were taken out on Monday morning.

Saudi Arabia said it has intercepted and destroyed three cruise missiles outside Al-Kharj city, southeast of the capital Riyadh.

Iran has targeted Saudi Arabia in recent days and attempted to blow up a CIA station at the US Embassy on Monday.

The IDF says it has launched at least two strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The latest strikes come hours after Israeli warned those living in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes and move north to the Litani River.

No casualties have been reported yet.

Israel and Hezbollah have been firing missiles at each other since Sunday.

Scots who were trapped in Dubai amid attacks from Iranian forces have told how they feared for their lives before they were brought home.

More than 300 people were returned to Scotland from Dubai via the Emirates airline on Wednesday night after witnessing days of destruction abroad.

Families broke down in tears of relief as they embraced their loved ones, who touched down at Edinburgh Airport at 8.12pm.

Victoria Cameron, 57, originally from South Africa but now residing in Larkhall, is partially deaf, and was met with a bunch of flowers from her husband, Brian Cameron.

Remembering the initial missile attacks on Saturday, she said: ‘I thought it was a firework. Then we saw the second one, then the third one and we started screaming and the hotel staff said ‘run, run, run’.

‘I was on the phone to my husband, saying “we’re under fire” and they led us away, the phones were going, we were shaking and we were crying.

‘I’m from South Africa, and I’m not scared of anything, we’re used to stuff, but I thought I was a goner on Saturday night.’