In an unsanctioned mission, the Foreign Service officer helped evacuate about 200 South Vietnamese citizens from Saigon days before the city fell in 1975.

The decision by Lebanon’s foreign ministry has heightened fears of internal instability. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group and political party, was quick to condemn the move.

Sri Lanka did not agree to the request, officials said, and has tried to remain neutral in the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.

The latest clash between the two countries illustrates the depths to which relations have sunk and the struggle to forge a new path forward.

The police are searching for two men who both fired at the building with a single handgun and fled in a white SUV.

The ordered departure of U.S. employees in the kingdom indicates that senior diplomats are bracing for a possible surge in violence in the war with Iran, officials say.

A motive for the explosion was unclear as of Sunday morning, but the police were investigating and said it appeared to be a “targeted attack.”