The US State Department said on Wednesday that family members of its embassy staff in Beirut may return to Lebanon, in a sign the volatile security environment has improved.
The department last week allowed non-essential personnel, who had been evacuated last month because of unspecified threats, to return to US Embassy in Beirut.
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Still, the State Department continued to urge US citizens to avoid traveling to Lebanon, citing the potential "for a spontaneous upsurge in violence" in the country, which borders Syria, where a civil war has raged for two and a half years.
The United States tightened security at its diplomatic missions in Lebanon and Turkey on Sept. 6 amid "potential threats," which arose about a week before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
At the time, non-essential workers and their families were ordered to leave Beirut and given permission to leave Adana, near Turkey's border with Syria.
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