The US embassy in Beirut has taken preventive security measures, pending the arrival of a US military force from Italy to bolster protection and counter Iranian threats.

A US military official announced that this force was preparing to head to Lebanon, following the killing of the commander of the Iranian Quds Force Qassem Soleimani, by a US airstrike near Baghdad International Airport at dawn on Friday.

Sources with knowledge of the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that the forces could arrive by air or sea.

“In the first case, they can land in the Army’s Hamat base in the north of the country, where US soldiers are training the Lebanese Army on the use of American weapons; as for the second case, the forces could arrive by sea through the nearest point to the embassy’s headquarters in Awkar,” the sources said.

The military official said that the force stationed in Italy was put on alert as a step within a series of military measures to protect American interests in the Middle East region. He explained that the US Department of Defense might send between 130 and 700 soldiers to Beirut.

A Lebanese security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that other security measures were imposed on the embassy’s staff, “including the ambassador, diplomats, administrative and security personnel, in addition to Americans working or residing in Lebanon or the Lebanese who hold US citizenship.”

In parallel, the ambassador of a major country advised officials in Lebanon to overcome the obstacles that prevent the formation of a new government “because the coming days are full of dangerous developments,” official sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The sources noted that “urgent contacts between people in Beirut and officials in Tehran have not ceased… to find the best retaliatory response,” adding that the US target could be “at sea on a warship or the assassination of a US figure or an ambassador, or striking an embassy.”