WASHINGTON, April 15: The United States will order non-essential US diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia due to heightened security fears in the kingdom, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.

"We are concerned, the threat level has gone up and in light of the threat level and the information that we have received ... we will be having an ordered departure," Powell told reporters.

The order will also require the family members of all employees at the US embassy in Riyadh as well as the US consulates in Dhahran and Jeddah to leave Saudi Arabia, State Department officials said. The decision marks the third time in the last 12 months that US diplomats had been ordered to leave Saudi Arabia because of potential threats.

On Tuesday, after a clash between Saudi authorities and suspected extremists in the capital in which six people were killed and two explosives-laden cars discovered, the US Embassy in Riyadh warned Americans in Saudi Arabia of the possibility of terrorist attacks. -AFP