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US vacates embassy in Pakistan

August 9, 2013

The United States has decided to evacuate its consulate in Lahore, Pakistan. Non-essential staff are being moved as a precaution, officials say.

https://p.dw.com/p/19MjO
Mourners react after the killing of Pakistani police officials at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Quetta on Thursday. (Photo: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty)
Image: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images

Non-emergency government personnel have been told to leave the US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan.

"We are undertaking this drawdown due to concerns about credible threat information specific to the US Consulate in Lahore," a senior State Department official said.

In addition, US citizens were being told to defer all non-essential travel to the country. Several foreign and domestic terrorist groups posed a danger to US citizens throughout Pakistan, according to authorities.

A US official said the announcement followed a specific threat to the Lahore mission, noting that it was not related to recent closures of several other diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa.

Funeral attack kills dozens

Pakistan, meanwhile, is still reeling from Thursday’s attack on a police funeral by a suicide bomber in the southwestern city of Quetta, which killed dozens. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

Many of the victims were police officers who were paying their respects at the funeral of a colleague. At least 30 people were killed in the blast, and another 55 people were wounded.

Quetta, a city plagued by several different security threats, is the provincial capital of Baluchistan, home to separatist fighters as well as sectarian and Islamist militants.

tm/ipj (Reuters, AFP, AP)