The U.S. Department of State has updated its Worldwide Caution for Americans traveling abroad. Specifically, the warning of a high risk of kidnapping, terrorists actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests in the wake of the airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.
In response to the airstrikes, ISIS directed its followers and supporters “to attack foreigners wherever they are.”
“Current information suggests that ISIS, al-Qaeda, its affiliated organizations and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. and Western interests in Europe,” the warning states.
In the Middle East, the State Department notes “credible information indicates terrorist groups also seek to continue attacks against U.S. interests.” Syria in particular, but also Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Libya are all populated by various Islamist terrorist groups which see harming U.S. citizens as a positive good.
(Do you notice a country that is missing from the list? A country whose international airport the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority shut down because of danger just a few months ago? That’s right. Israel. Nowhere on the list of countries in which U.S. citizens need fear attacks by terrorists.)
Similarly, in Africa, Islamist terrorist organizations including al Qaeda, AQIM, Al-Shabaab, and Boko Haram have successfully carried out terrorist attacks against westerners and others in Mali, Senegal, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, Djibouti and Eritrea.
In South Asia, the U.S. government continues to receive information that terrorist groups may be planning attacks, “possibly against U.S. government facilities, U.S. citizens or U.S. interests.” These threats constitute credible dangers for U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
There is also information which the State Department deems credible for plans of attacks against U.S. citizens in East Asia, and the Pacific, including the southern Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.