United States citizens should avoid travel to Pakistan, the State Department said yesterday in a fresh warning that follows numerous protests, demonstrations and rallies in Pakistan that US officials said are likely to continue.
The department advised Americans to put off any non-essential travel to the country and “strongly urged” those who are already there to avoid protests and large gatherings.
“The presence of al-Qaida, Taliban elements, and indigenous militant sectarian groups poses a potential danger to US citizens throughout Pakistan,” the State Department said in a statement.
Meanwhile, US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns arrived in Tripoli yesterday, a week after a deadly attack on the USconsulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Burns flew into the Libyan capital where he was due to meet new Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour and Mohammed Magarief, head of the national congress, Libyan government officials said. He was also scheduled to attend a ceremony commemorating US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who died in last week’s consulate attack in Benghazi, they said.
Stevens and three other Americans died when gunmen attacked the US consulate and a safe house. The attackers were part of a crowd that blamed the United States for a video posted online that mocks the Prophet Mohammad.
A top U.S. counter-terrorism official told Congress that the assault on the consulate was a “terrorist attack” that may have had an al Qaeda connection.
The Libyan government further apologized yesterday to visiting US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns for an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in which American ambassador Christopher Stevens died.
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