U.S. diplomatic families to begin departing from Pakistan

? Families of U.S. diplomatic personnel and nonessential workers packed up to leave Pakistan on Saturday, less than a week after an attack on a church that killed five people, including two Americans.

Dependents and nonessential workers at the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi were ordered home Friday by the U.S. State Department. Other Americans in the country were encouraged to consider leaving as well in the second such action since Sept. 11.

“The possibility of threats to Americans continues, as demonstrated by the March 17 attack on worshippers at a church service in Islamabad,” a State Department travel warning said.

Mark Wentworth, an embassy spokesman in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, would not say how many people were leaving or discuss details of the evacuation, although he said the process had started.

“Non-emergency personnel will be defined on a case-by-case basis, so it’s hard to know who is going to go and who is going to stay,” Wentworth said Saturday. “I suspect it will be like last fall, a very organized departure. The Embassy went through this six months ago.”

Among those who left just after the Sept. 11 attacks were the wife of a U.S. diplomat, Barbara Green, and her daughter, Kristen Wormsley. The two later returned to Pakistan after the embassy concluded the situation had improved and were killed in the church attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell informed President Pervez Musharraf of the decision to scale down the staff by telephone from Monterrey, Mexico, where Powell was accompanying U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday. Powell told Musharraf the decision did not reflect any lack of confidence in Pakistan’s ability to protect Americans, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

Pakistani security agencies have been exploring possible al-Qaida links to a wave of terrorist strikes, including the grenade attack on the Protestant International Church on March 17.

The church attack came weeks after the kidnapping and murder in Pakistan of Daniel Pearl, a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

Boucher said Sunday’s attack at a church suggests that no location can be considered immune from terrorist attack. He added that the attack took place notwithstanding the presence of large number of police in the area.

The Embassy will continue to provide services to Americans in the country, including those who wish to leave, Wentworth said.