Harf declined to say from which region of the world the threat had emanated, saying only that “security considerations have led us to take this precautionary step, as we do from time to time.” The State Department will provide further details soon, Harf said. The security of American embassies and other diplomatic facilities has recently emerged as a political flashpoint in the wake of the September 11, 2012 attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the lives of four Americans, including then-ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. In the wake of that attack, Republicans accused the State Department of providing insufficient security for diplomatic personnel in Libya.