Confirming reports going into the weekend, the U.S. State Department announced Sunday that it is evacuating key personnel from the embassy in Baghdad in preparation for the imminent assault of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also ISIS) forces. The State Dept. announced that in addition to evacuating some personnel, the U.S. is augmenting security forces at the compound with over 100 Marines and Army soldiers.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Sunday morning that “a substantial majority of the U.S. Embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place” and that the compound “will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission,” but she also explained that some of the key embassy staff would be moved temporarily to locations not currently threatened by ISIL forces, including north of Baghdad and in border regions. Due to the evacuation, she said, the embassy would be “restricted in its ability to offer all consular services; but emergency services are always available to U.S. citizens in need at any embassy or consulate anywhere in the world.”

Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said that embassy personnel are being relocated via a variety of modes, including State Dept., commercial , and charter aircraft. He also noted that the U.S. has “airlift assets at the ready” in case of the need for further evacuation.

The relocation of embassy personnel comes in response to the impending threat of an ISIL assault on the capital city. Iraqi forces have largely failed to check the momentum of the ISIL forces as they have seized key cities and reports of massacres of Iraqi forces have proliferated. The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

The State Department acted as the Iraqi government sought to bolster its defenses in Baghdad on Sunday. Despite the added security, a string of explosions killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 in the city, police and hospital officials said. And, an Islamic militant group behind the strife. the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL, posted graphic photos that appeared to show its fighters massacring dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers.

USA Today reports that recent counterattacks by Iraqi troops have helped slow ISIL about 30 miles from Baghdad, but that has not altered the embassy evacuation process.

Sunday evening the State Department also issued an official travel warning for Iraq, discouraging “all but essential travel to Iraq” and stressing that travel within the country “remains dangerous given the security situation.”

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is the world’s largest U.S. diplomatic post, with around 5,000 personnel.