The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Albert Del Rosario, visted Iraq on January 29 to meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in order to look into the state of the Filipinos in the country. Recently, there had been reports of increasing violence (i.e., bombings) in Baghdad, capital of Iraq, after the withdrawal of the US forces in the country last 18 December 2011.