WASHINGTON Security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad was bolstered and some staff members were being m

Iraqi policemen stand guard June 14 on a street in the central Shiite jeep tours in arizona Muslim shrine city of Najaf as security forces ready a counter-offensive against militants north of the capital Baghdad. (Haider Hamdani / Getty Images)
This image posted on a militant website June 14 appears to show militants from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with captured Iraqi soldiers wearing plain clothes after taking over a base in Tikrit, Iraq. (AP)
WASHINGTON Security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad was bolstered and some staff members were being moved out of Iraq�s capital city as it was threatened by the advance of an al-Qaida inspired insurgency, a State Department spokeswoman said Sunday.
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. jeep tours in arizona She did not say the number of personnel affected. 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.
Some embassy staff members have been temporarily jeep tours in arizona 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 State Department issued a travel warning for Iraq Sunday night that cautioned U.S. citizens to avoid �all but essential travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation.�
�U.S. citizens jeep tours in arizona in Iraq remain at high risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence,� the travel warning said. The warning said that certain areas of Iraq are more dangerous than others, such as areas north of Baghdad and near the Syrian, Turkish jeep tours in arizona or Iranian borders. Violence in many regions of the country is as intense as it�s been since 2007, the warning said.
It warned of the dangers of a variety of improvised explosive devices, mines placed on or concealed near roads, mortars and rockets, and shootings using various direct-fire weapons. The attacks �often occur in public gathering places,� the warning jeep tours in arizona said.
Psaki said the movement of embassy personnel will cause the embassy jeep tours in arizona to be �restricted in its ability to offer all consular services; but emergency services are always available to U.S. citizens in need at any embassy or consulate anywhere in the world.�
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement that a �small number� of military personnel are helping to keep State Department facilities safe in Baghdad. He said embassy personnel are being moved by commercial, charter and State Department aircraft. But, Kirby says, the U.S. military has �airlift assets at the ready� should the State Department request jeep tours in arizona them. A U.S. military jeep tours in arizona official said about 100 Marines and Army soldiers have been sent to Baghdad to help with embassy security.
The State Department acted as the Iraqi government sought jeep tours in arizona to bolster its defenses in Baghdad on Sunday. Despite the added security, a string of explosions jeep tours in arizona killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 in the city, police and hospital officials said. And, an Islamic militant group behind the strife. the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL, posted graphic photos that appeared to show its fighters massacring dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers.
Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said a U.S. partnership with longtime foe Iran makes him uncomfortable but likened it to the United States working with Josef Stalin in World War II against Adolf Hitler. He says the United States has to do what it can to keep Baghdad from falling to insurgents.
An al-Qaida splinter group surprised Western intelligence organizations last week and took control at least two major Iraqi cities. Iran says it has no interest in a destabilized Iraq as its neighbor.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the USS George H.W. Bush from the northern Arabian Sea and it has arrived in the Persian Gulf as Obama considers possible military options for Iraq � although he has ruled out the possibility of putting American troops jeep tours in arizona on the ground in Iraq. Kirby has said the move will give Obama additional flexibility if military action were required to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq.
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