Telegraph UK
written by Bonnie Malkin
Friday August 9, 2013
"We have picked up what we regard as a threat worthy of taking this action," one senior US official told CNN.
The State Department issued an "ordered departure" for all of its diplomats in Lahore, except for a handful of emergency personnel. The diplomats were moved to Islamabad, the nation's capital, officials said.
The move came at the same time as a travel warning was issued for Pakistan, which said the drawdown of staff was "due to specific threats concerning the US Consulate in Lahore".
The travel warning issued by the State Department also warned US citizens against all "non-essential" travel to Pakistan.
"The presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups poses a potential danger to US citizens throughout Pakistan," the travel warning said.
Last week the US announced it was temporarily closing 19 embassies across the Middle East, Asia and Africa - but not in Pakistan - due to terror threats.
It is not known if the decision to take staff out of Lahore was related to the same threat.
"We are still digging and trying to trace whether it is related," the official said.
US officials have said al-Qaeda's core leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been decimated in recent years, citing the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden and the killing of several senior operatives in US drone strikes.
A cosmopolitan city dominated by an ancient Mughal fort, Lahore is Pakistan's cultural capital but has also suffered from attacks by militant groups.
A bomb killed five people and wounded dozens on a restaurant-lined street, popular with tourists, in Lahore last month. Attacks have gone up since the landslide election of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in May elections.
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France24 news
written by AFP staff
Friday August 9, 2013
The United States evacuated all non-emergency staff from its consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, citing "specific threats" amid a worldwide alert over Al-Qaeda intercepts.
The travel warning issued by the State Department also warned US citizens against all "non-essential" travel to Pakistan.
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