Expanded military support for security at the United States Embassy in Baghdad will include fewer than 100 soldiers, a U.S. official said Sunday, according to The Associated Press.
The enhanced security personnel will include Marines and other soldiers, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity, shortly after the Obama administration said it would move some embassy staff out of Baghdad and order the military to bolster security at its diplomatic facilities in the Iraqi capital, the AP reported.
Jen Psaki said in a statement that much of U.S. embassy staff will stay in place even as parts of the country experience instability and violence, but she did not say the number of personnel affected, according to the AP.
The embassy is within Baghdad's Green Zone. It has about 5,000 personnel, making it the largest U.S. diplomatic post in the world, the AP reported.
"Overall, a substantial majority of the U.S. Embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place and the embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission," Psaki said, according to the AP.
Some embassy staff members have been temporarily moved elsewhere to more stable places at consulates in Basra in the Shiite-dominated south of Iraq and Irbil in the Kurdish semi-autonomous region in northeastern Iraq and to Jordan, she said, the AP reported.
U.S. travelers in the country were encouraged to avoid all by essential travel and exercise great caution, according to the AP.
The State Department issued a travel warning for Iraq Sunday night that cautioned U.S. citizens to avoid "all but essential travel to Iraq, the AP reported. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation."
"U.S. citizens in Iraq remain at high risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence," the travel warning said, adding that certain areas of Iraq are more dangerous than others, such as areas north of Baghdad and near the Syrian, Turkish or Iranian borders, according to the AP. Violence in many regions of the country is as intense as it's been since 2007, the warning said.
