UAE Issues Iraq Travel Warning

The UAE warned its citizens on Wednesday not to travel to Iraq on hunting trips this season because of insecurity in the country, state news agency WAM reported.

"This measure aims to secure and protect all the country's citizens," said senior foreign ministry official Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Buti al-Hamed, urging Emiratis to comply, according to WAM.

Many Emirati hunters travel in the spring to Iraq's Sunni-majority western province of Anbar, the site of protests against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Others head to southern Shiite-populated cities.

Iraq's western regions have been rocked by a campaign against Maliki's Shiite-dominated government, while suicide attacks remain common in Baghdad despite a relative decline in violence across the country.