The United States evacuated some staff members from the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil, the State Department said Sunday, out of “an abundance of caution” amid an offensive by the blood thirsty IS terror outfit.
The notice announcing “the departure of some staff from the consulate general in Arbil,” came in the form of a State Department travel warning for Iraq, just two days after a previous one.
Meanwhile State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf confirmed in a statement that the move was made “in light of the security situation in Iraq” and that the US had “temporarily relocated a limited number of staff from Consulate Arbil to our consulate in Basra (southern Iraq) and to the Iraq support unit in Amman,” Jordan.
“While security concerns remain extremely high in Iraq, this limited move today is out of an abundance of caution rather than any one specific threat,” she said.
“Overall, a majority of our personnel in Arbil remain in place, and our consulate is fully equipped to carry out its national security mission.” She said.
