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It's
happening, as was predicted 2 days ago. ISIS troops are in the
suburbs of Baghdad and attacking the airport.
Just
a couple of hours ago the official news was that the advance had been
stopped and even repelled.
Some
of us knew better.
US
to evacuate Baghdad embassy staff
The
US embassy in Baghdad is evacuating personnel and increasing military
security after militants captured vast swathes of territory and
advanced toward the capital, officials say.
16
June, 2014
It
was unclear how many staff members would be evacuated from the
mission. Located within the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses
much of the international presence in the city, the US embassy is the
largest in the world.
State
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the staff would only be
"temporarily relocated" to US consulates in Basra in the
south and Arbil in the northern Kurdish territories. Neither area is
currently threatened by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
militants.
Other
staff will be flown to the US embassy in the Jordanian capital of
Amman, where they will work on Iraq-related issues.
Rear
Admiral John Kirby, the Department of Defence spokesman, said a
"small number of DOD personnel are augmenting State Department
security assets in Baghdad to help ensure the safety of our
facilities".
Kirby
indicated that the embassy staff were being relocated using
commercial, charter and State Department aircraft, and that the US
military also had air assets available as needed.
"The
Embassy of the United States in Baghdad remains open and will
continue to engage daily with Iraqis and their elected leaders -
supporting them as they strengthen Iraq's constitutional processes
and defend themselves from imminent threats," Psaki said in a
statement.
She
stressed that Washington "strongly supports Iraq and its people"
as they face the militants' onslaught.
American
contractors working for the Iraqi government to train local security
forces on US military equipment are already being evacuated out of
the country.
Additional
US government security personnel will join the staff at the embassy
in Baghdad "as a result of ongoing instability and violence in
certain areas of Iraq", Psaki said.
She
urged Americans in the country to "exercise caution and limit
travel" to the provinces of Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh and
Salah ad Din, as well as make emergency contingency plans, maintain
security awareness at all times and register their travel with the
State Department.
Washington
has responded to the sweeping unrest by deploying an aircraft carrier
group to the Gulf.
President
Barack Obama has said he is weighing "all options," while
ruling out any return of US combat troops to Iraq, a country they
left nearly three years ago after a bloody and costly occupation
launched in 2003.
Tweets from the last hour
Rami
#Alarabiya: Tribe fighters spokesperson: Our military operations toward #Baghdad have begun.. #Iraq #ISIS
Gregor Peter
IRAQI MILITARY BASE IN TAJI 20 MILES NORTH OF BAGHDAD HAS FALLEN TO ISIS (VIA @TERRYMORAN)
PzFeed Top News
BREAKING NEWS: Baghdad airport is now under attack by ISIS rockets.
"@TischNewYorkers: Iraqi rebels fire mortar missiles on the Green Zone in Baghdad #Iraq" @seemorerocks
"@markito0171: #Iraq #Maliki commander Mohammed al-Quraishi admits to channel CNN that the government lost control of #TalAfar"@seemorerocks
Retweeted by Sycnation Gonzalez
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