The US government ordered theevacuation of non-essential staff from its consulate in thenortheastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday due to thethreat of attack, with the State Department also warning US citizens not to travel to Pakistan.
"The Department of State ordered this drawdown due tospecific threats concerning the US consulate in Lahore," said a travel warning posted on the Department of State's website onThursday.
The warning in Lahore, near Pakistan's border with India,comes two days after Washington evacuated some diplomats fromYemen and told its nationals to leave that country immediately.
The United States shut nearly two dozen missions across theMiddle East after a worldwide alert on Aug. 2, warning Americansthat al Qaeda may be planning attacks in August, particularly inthe Middle East and North Africa.
The Lahore warning noted that "several foreign andindigenous terrorist groups pose a potential danger to U.S.citizens throughout Pakistan".
A US embassy spokeswoman said it was unclear when the consulate would reopen. Tensions have also risen this week with Pakistan's neighbour India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
It was unclear if the Lahore announcement was linked withthe earlier U.S. closures. The embassy spokeswoman said theclosure was due to a specific threat to Lahore.
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 lastmonth. Attacks have gone up since the landslide election of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in May elections.
Pakistan is home to a number of militant groups, includingal Qaeda, the Taliban, and other sectarian groups.
The US State Department initially announced the widerembassy closures would be only for last Sunday, then extendedthe closures of some by a week and added Burundi, Rwanda andMauritius to the closure list.
A number of the missions would have been closed anyway formost of the week due to the Eid celebration at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the State Department said.
Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, is the base for AlQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the most activebranches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden. Militantshave launched attacks from there against the West.
US sources have told Reuters that interceptedcommunication between bin Laden's successor as Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and the Yemen-based wing was one part of theintelligence behind their alert last week.