U.S. orders part of government employees to leave Iraq

The U.S. State Department ordered the departure of government employees from Iraq, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said in a statement.

The department ordered "nonemergency U.S. government employees," at both the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil, to leave the country. 

The order applies primarily to full-time diplomats posted to Iraq by State Department headquarters in Washington, and an embassy statement said that visa services in Iraq would be suspended as a result, the New York Times reported.

The statement recommended those affected “depart by commercial transportation as soon as possible”.