US warns of terror threat to Iraqi hotels

The US embassy in Baghdad on Monday said that it was restricting the movement of its employees after receiving new information about possible attacks against foreign nationals at hotel compounds in the Iraqi capital.

It said on its website that it had received “credible threats of possible attacks on hotels frequented by westerners.”

Without providing details of the possible targets or the method of the potential attack, the embassy said in an emergency message that Americans should “maintain a heightened sense of security awareness and take appropriate measures to enhance their personal security at all times when living and working in Iraq.”

In early January two suicide bombings at crowded markets in the city, killed 16 people and last year a large attack in Baghdad - a coordinated suicide bombing - killed more than 340 people.