US oil firms evacuating staff from Iraq

Foreign oil companies in the Middle East have started evacuating their staff out of oilfields in Iraq, Report informs via BBC.

Footage gathered by Reuters news agency shows staff crossing through the Safwan border into Kuwait.

A security guard at US oil firm Halliburton, Mohamed Ta'meh, told the agency that "due to the security situation in Iraq, foreign staff working at the oil stations (in Iraq) have left for the state of Kuwait, and from there they will see where they will go."

Oil fields have been a target during the week-long conflict, with another US oil firm, HKN Energy, halting production at a site in Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday following reports from the regional government of an attack by "outlaw groups in Iraq".