The US Embassy in Lebanon has warned staff not to patronize Beirut’s Casino du Liban due to unspecified threats.
On Thursday, the US Embassy in Beirut issued a statement saying that it has “barred any movement of US government staff” to the Casino du Liban in Jounieh “due to ongoing threats to locations” including the nation’s only licensed gambling venue.
As one might expect, the warning avoided mentioning any specific information on why it had issued its statement. The US State Department has long issued a travel warning to US citizens to avoid traveling to Lebanon “because of the threats of terrorism, armed clashes, kidnapping and outbreaks of violence.”
In January 2015, Lebanese security forces confirmed that they had disrupted a planned terror attack at Casino du Liban that was supposed to take place on New Year’s Eve 2014. Terrorists linked to the Al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front reportedly planned to detonate a car bomb outside the venue’s entrance.