4 Arab nations cutting ties with Qatar

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Four Arab nations cut diplomatic ties to Qatar early today, further deepening a rift among Gulf Arab nations over that country’s support for Islamist groups.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all announced they would withdraw their diplomatic staffs from Qatar, a gas-rich nation about half the size of New Jersey. Saudi Arabia said Qatari troops would be pulled from its ongoing war in Yemen.

All the nations also said they planned to cut air and sea traffic to the peninsular country bordering Saudi Arabia. It wasn’t immediately clear how that would affect the stateowned Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers. The airline and Qatari officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Qatar is also home to the alUdeid Air Base, which houses the U.S. military’s Central Command and some 10,000 American troops. It wasn’t clear whether the decision would affect American military operations. Central Command officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bahrain blamed Qatar’s “media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain” for its decision.

The decision comes after Qatar alleged in late May that hackers took over the site of its state-run news agency and published what it called fake comments from its ruling emir about Iran and Israel. Its Gulf Arab neighbors responded by blocking Qatari-based media, including the Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera.

Qatar strongly denies that it funds extremist groups, although it supports the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist political group, and remains a key patron of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Western officials also have accused Qatar of allowing or even encouraging funding of Sunni extremists like Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as the Nusra Front.