Today (30 April) Werner Hoyer, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, will welcome members of the Federal Police Special Forces (GSG 9) to the Bonn branch of the Federal Foreign Office. These officers were responsible for providing security at the German Embassy in Baghdad from 2003 to 2009.

The GSG 9 operation in Baghdad ended in January 2010. By that point, over 160 officers of the GSG 9 had served in Iraq. Since the beginning of this year, the German Embassy in Baghdad has been protected by a new Federal Police unit.

The security situation in Iraq remains highly critical. Recently the German Embassy itself was the target of an attack on 4 April 2010 that claimed the lives of three people.