One day after the State Department announced it was shutting down a number of U.S. embassies abroad this Sunday, the agency has now issued a worldwide travel alert for Americans outside the country.
Here is the State Department's worldwide travel alert. pic.twitter.com/sjQR4i51nQ
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) August 2, 2013
This “precautionary” step includes more than 20 embassies in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. According to an unnamed Bloomberg source in the State Department, this includes embassies in “predominantly Muslim countries, and also in Israel, where the workweeks include Sundays.”
The State Department told NBC yesterday that the threats to the embassies, and now deductively to travelers, were “al-Qaeda related.”
MORE: Closure of US Embassies on Sunday stems from an al Qaeda-related threat originating from the Middle East, US officials tell NBC News
— NBC Nightly News (@nbcnightlynews) August 1, 2013
CNN has speculated that it is possible tensions are growing in the Middle East due to “the approach of both the holy days at the end of Ramadan and the first anniversary of the [Benghazi] attack.”
According to the State Department’s alert, this travel advisement expires on August 31, 2013.