US intelligence warns Iranian plots to kill Americans have reached advanced stages as four Mideast embassies thin out staff

The country's top spy chief has warned that Iran is working much harder to hurt Americans overseas. He said some of those schemes to kill U.S. citizens are already well along in the Middle East and in other parts of the world.

Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton laid out the threat in a memo he sent Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser. Clayton wrote that his agencies had picked up intelligence showing Tehran has sharply stepped up efforts to go after U.S. personnel. CIA Director John Ratcliffe received a copy.

The memo does not name specific targets or say which countries are involved. It also does not say whether an attack could come soon. Clayton said intelligence teams are working to declassify more of what they have learned so it can be shared widely with diplomats in the field.

Four embassies get smaller

The warning surfaced right after the State Department said it is cutting staff at the U.S. embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. All four posts were already working under a restricted status that shrinks the number of people on site. They will stay open.

Workers at those four embassies are not being forced to leave. That is different from Saudi Arabia, where on Wednesday the department ordered nonessential American staff and their families out of the country.

When it first announced the drawdowns, the department pointed to danger from the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are backed by Iran. Officials now say threats from both the Houthis and Tehran are shaping the moves. The Pentagon has also been quietly shrinking its own presence at bases across the region.

A tense region

The Houthis have been firing drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia as fighting with a Saudi-led coalition flares again. One strike on the main airport in Riyadh this month killed at least 12 people including an American and left hundreds hurt. Last weekend U.S. embassies across the Gulf urged Americans to stay alert.

U.S. officials insist the staffing cuts have nothing to do with any plan for fresh American or Israeli strikes on Iran. The war with Iran has stalled while go-betweens try to restart formal talks. It has also pushed up energy prices at home just days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

At a campaign stop in Florida on Friday night, the president hinted that more military action is possible if Iran will not make a deal. He said the U.S. may do another little Epic Fury, a nod to the name of the military campaign that began in February.

Iran's navy has threatened to hit American bases in the region if the U.S. keeps escorting merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned this week that any new escalation would put civilians and the world economy at serious risk.