Increasingly alarmed about the violent Egyptian political upheaval, the United States sharply raised the threat level in its travel advisory to Egypt on Wednesday, warning citizens to defer visits and advising American residents there to leave.
An updated travel warning, posted on the Web sites of the State Department and the American Embassy in Cairo, also said the State Department had ordered the evacuation of "nonemergency U.S. government personnel and family members from Egypt due to the ongoing political and social unrest."
The Cairo embassy has been shuttered for days as deadly protests have escalated against Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president. The military ousted him on Wednesday a little more than one year into his term, and the possibility of lethal clashes has grown.
A State Department travel advisory for Egypt has basically been in effect since the 2011 protests that broke out against Mr. Morsi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, advising Americans to take precautions when visiting the country. But the updated advisory urges Americans to avoid Egypt altogether.
"The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer travel to Egypt and U.S. citizens living in Egypt to depart at this time because of the continuing political and social unrest," the updated travel warning stated. "Demonstrations have, on occasion, degenerated into violent clashes between police and protesters, and between protesters supporting different factions, resulting in deaths, injuries, and extensive property damage."
The new warning is a fresh blow to Egypt's tourism industry, already devastated from the past two years of political uncertainty. It is unclear how many American expatriates live in Egypt but it is believed to be in the thousands.
Last Friday an American student who taught English in Egypt was stabbed to death during a violent protest between supporters and opponents of Mr. Morsi in the city of Alexandria. On Wednesday, an American nonprofit group, the American Councils for International Education, said it was relocating participants in its Arabic Overseas Flagship Program from Egypt to Morocco because of the mayhem in Egypt, The Associated Press reported. Calls to the group's Washington offices were not immediately returned.
