Thu May 31, 5:30 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US architect working on the construction of a massive new US embassy in war-torn Baghdad quickly removed plans and drawings of the proposed compound from its website Thursday after a protest from the State Department, officials said.
"Our desire would be that this not be in the public domain," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said after officials called the firm of Berger Devine Yaeger within minutes of learning from a reporter that the embassy plans had been posted on its website.
"We work very hard to ensure the safety and security of our employees overseas and this kind of information out in the public domain detracts from that effort," Gallegos told AFP.
"When it was brought to our attention that these drawings were on their website, they were contacted by department officials and subsequently agreed to take it down," he said.
Congress has authorized nearly 600 million dollars to build what will be the largest, most fortified US embassy in the world, to be situated in the US-controlled "Green Zone" in central Baghdad.
The current US embassy is housed in Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace, also in the Green Zone, and employs some 1,000 US nationals, the most of any US diplomatic mission.
moreFriday June 1, 9:25 AM
WASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-led group said on Thursday it had killed an Iraqi husband and wife employed by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
Earlier, U.S. officials said the couple appeared to have been kidnapped.
The U.S. officials, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said that after the husband went missing late last week his wife went to look for him and then she too appeared to have been abducted.
"God's ruling has been implemented against two of the most prominent agents and spies of the worshippers of the cross ... a man and woman who occupy an important position at the U.S. embassy..." the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq said in a statement published on the Internet.
"The swords of the security personnel of the Islamic State in Iraq ... are with God's grace slitting the throats of crusaders and their aides and lackeys," it said.
The killings took place on Monday, it said.
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