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The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation. On June 16, the Department of State began relocating some staff members from the Embassy to the Consulates General in Basrah and Erbil and Iraq Support Unit in Amman. The Embassy remains open and is operating. In early August, the threat to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) increased considerably with the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) towards Kurdish areas. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated June 16, 2014, to...

The United States shut down its embassy in Libya on Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said. "Due to the ongoing violence resulting from clashes between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, we have temporarily relocated all of our personnel out of Libya," spokeswoman Marie Harf said. The withdrawal underscored the Obama administration's concern about the heightened risk to American diplomats abroad, particularly in Libya where memories of the deadly 2012...

A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Berlin on Monday night. Police said it was too soon to say whether it was part of a political protest. Amid tensions in Berlin over pro-Gaza protests and a rise in anti-Semitism, the 46-year-old doused himself in a flammable liquid and then set himself alight with a cigarette lighter at 11.45pm on Monday. Police said the man, who is of Arab descent, only suffered minor injuries outside the Israeli embassy in south-west Berlin. …

In the aftermath of the tragic crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, residents of Ukraine's capital city have created a spontaneous memorial at the Dutch embassy.In the aftermath of the tragic crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, residents of Ukraine's capital city have created a spontaneous memorial at the Dutch embassy. More than half of the people aboard the flight were from the Netherlands. Residents began showing up at the Netherlands embassy in Kiev shortly after hearing the news that MH17 had crashed. While many wanted to talk, they feared using their full names in this politically charged climate. Natalia,...

As a result of the July 8 rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and the potential for further attacks, U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv will operate at minimal staffing until further notice. Chief of Mission personnel will not be allowed to travel south of Tel Aviv without prior approval. Embassy families living in Tel Aviv are being advised to remain at home and in close contact with one another. The Embassy continues to closely monitor the security situation and advises U.S. citizens to visit the website of the Government of Israel's Home Front Command for further emergency preparedness guidance. Recent events underscore...

Concerned Americans rallied together outside of the Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC today to protest the incarceration of U.S. citizen and Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi, 25. Marine in jail in Mexico Protesters included representatives from Help Save Maryland, a grassroots citizens’ organization dedicated to providing facts regarding illegal aliens who live and/or work in Maryland. Each participant circled around the entrance of the Mexican Embassy with signs that said “bring our Marine home,” and they used a megaphone to amplify their demands. Many protestersexpressed frustration with the Mexican Government for not allowing Tahmooressi to return to the United States and...

President Obama announced that American troops are being deployed to Iraq. Returning nearly three years after the United States withdrew in 2011 Deployed to protect American personnel and embassy staff in Baghdad This comes as John Kerry says Washington is 'open to discussions' with Tehran about military cooperation He also told Yahoo! News correspondent Katie Couric that drone strikes also 'may well be' an option in the coming days Just a year ago, Obama was weighing ever-tougher sanctions against Iran's mullahs ISIS captured Tal Afar, a key northern town along the highway to Syria, early on Monday, with a population...

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation. On June 16, the Department of State began relocating some staff members from the Embassy to the Consulates General in Basrah and Erbil and Iraq Support Unit in Amman. The Embassy remains open and is operating. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated June 11, 2014, to update information on security incidents and to remind U.S. citizens of ongoing security concerns in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence. The ability of the Embassy to respond to...

The USS Mesa Verde with 550 Marines on board entered the Gulf on Monday to support possible U.S. action to help Iraq's Shi'ite-led government combat a Sunni Islamist insurgency that has overtaken large areas of the country's north, CNN reported. The USS Mesa Verde joins the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which the Pentagon ordered on Saturday to move into the Gulf. President Barack Obama has said he is considering military action, short of putting U.S. troops in Iraq, to aid that government's efforts to stop the insurgency.

Iraq Travel Warning June 11, 2014 The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated March 6, 2014, to update information on security incidents and to remind U.S. citizens of ongoing security concerns in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence.  The ability of the Embassy to respond to situations in which U.S. citizens face difficulty, including arrests, is extremely limited. U.S. citizens in Iraq remain at high risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence.  Methods of attack have...

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, has hoisted the gay pride flag over the embassy building in Tel Aviv.  Todd Starnes grabbed the pic from the embassy's Facebook page. “Proudly flying the colors,” Ambassador Dan Shapiro wrote on the embassy’s Facebook page. He posted a photograph showing a rainbow colored flag flying alongside the American flag outside the embassy in Tel Aviv.  “For the first time in history, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised the Pride flag together with our American flag,” Shapiro wrote. “We are proud to join with the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo and its residents...

Despite the latest security concerns in Libya - due to the recent escalation of violence in the terrorist infested country - and despite the recent decision by several other countries to shut down their embassies there, the Obama administration, thus far, has refrained from taking similar action, presumably because the apparent urgency to close down the embassy would reflect poorly on the administration's failed policies there. A defense official told CNN early last week that the decision to evacuate the embassy is "minute by minute, hour by hour," which means that the safety and security of US embassy personnel there...

Ecuador's government has ordered everyone in the US Embassy's military group, about 20 Defense Department employees, to leave the country by month's end. The group was ordered to halt operations in Ecuador in a letter dated April 7, embassy spokesman Jeffrey Weinshenker said Thursday. The Associated Press was alerted to the expulsions by a senior Ecuadorean official who refused to be identified by name due to the information's sensitive nature.

Germany is to offer Israeli citizens consular assistance in states such as Indonesia or Malaysia where Israel has no official diplomatic representation, under a new deal to be signed by Angela Merkel when she visits Jerusalem next week.

Barack Obama has been an indefatigable and unstinting supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, as well as of its proxies in the U.S. Thus it is not surprising that U.S. Embassy employees in Cairo would be Brotherhood allies as well. Obama was the target of vociferous criticism during the anti-Brotherhood demonstrations last summer for his uncritical support of the Brotherhood. “US Embassy confirms one of its local employees detained,” by Rabab Fathy for Youm7 via the Cairo Post, February 11 (thanks to Joyce): -more detail at source

Italian police say they are searching for the sender of pig heads to Rome’s main synagogue, the Israeli Embassy and a city museum hosting an exhibit on the Holocaust. […] The deliveries were made Friday, three days before an international memorial day for Holocaust victims. …

On Egypt's third anniversary of the 25 January 2011 revolution, the US embassy warns its citizens from 'gathering in both celebrations and protest' The US Embassy in Cairo has released a security message warning its citizens of potential clashes on Saturday, the third anniversary of the 25 January 2011 revolution. The embassy told its citizens "there might be groups gathering in both celebrations and protest" in the areas of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Rabaa Al-Adaweya Mosque in Nasr City, Nahda Square by Cairo University in Giza, as well as other universities and governmental institutions.

A US official downplayed on Thursday a Shin Bet announcement of an uncovered al-Qaida plot to attack the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, calling the cell's plans "aspirational," although the official did not rule out the possibility of danger. On Wednesday, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said it had arrested three Palestinian suspects - two from east Jerusalem and one from the West Bank city of Jenin - who were preparing to bomb multiple targets in Israel, including the US mission and the Jerusalem Convention Center. "The detainee probably said it but I don't think we give a lot...

EU countries have informally told the European Parliament they want the Union’s foreign service to open an embassy in Iran. Tarja Cronberg, a Finnish Green MEP who chairs the parliament’s Iran delegation, said member states’ ambassadors in Tehran backed the idea when she met them in the Iranian capital on an official trip earlier this month. […] The EU already has embassies in other pariah states, such as Belarus. But Iran and the EU remain wary of each other despite the Geneva breakthrough. …

Federal law enforcement authorities have charged nearly 50 past or present Russian diplomats and their spouses in a $1.5 million Medicaid fraud scheme, an unusual twist in what has become a familiar criminal story line in New York. An F.B.I. investigation revealed “the systemic fraudulent submission of falsified applications for Medicaid benefits” by the diplomats and their spouses, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday in United States District Court in Manhattan. The diplomats and their spouses obtained the benefits for pregnancies, births and first-year-of-life medical needs, generally applying at the same New York hospital, which was not identified,...