Yemen boosts security at embassies, airport

SANAA, Jan 4, 2010 (AFP) - France became the latest foreign mission to close in Yemen on Monday as security around embassies and the airport was boosted, officials said, amid fears of strikes by an Al-Qaeda branch linked to a botched attack on a US airliner.

Security forces, meanwhile, shot dead two suspected Al-Qaeda members in an operation north of the capital, a tribal source said.


The stricter security came as US authorities announced intensifying airport checks on passengers travelling from or via 14 "terror linked" countries, including Yemen.

The US and British embassies in Sanaa had been shut since Sunday for what they said were security reasons, while France on Monday announced it too was closing its mission.

"On January 3, our ambassador decided to no longer authorise public access to the premises of our diplomatic mission," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters in Paris.

He said French citizens in Yemen had been warned to remain vigilant and to limit their movements.

The Japanese foreign ministry said consular services had been suspended at its embassy in Yemen but the mission was conducting other business as usual.

The German foreign ministry confirmed security had been tightened at its mission but that the embassy remained open.

Yemeni officials, asking not to be named, told AFP on Monday that security had been tightened outside all embassies in the capital.

US President Barack Obama has accused the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of arming and training a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day.

AQAP claimed responsibility for the failed attack and called for strikes on embassies in Yemen.

A Yemeni security official told AFP that police measures "were intensified" on the road to the airport "following the closure of the US embassy."

"These measures are preventive in case of any attacks by Al-Qaeda in the country, mainly as the road to Sanaa airport is vital," he told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Security had already been tight around the American embassy, which was the target of a car bomb in September 2008 that killed 19 people outside the complex.

Yemeni authorities have in recent weeks intensified operations against Al-Qaeda in the impoverished Arabian peninsula state, killing more than 60 Islamist militants in two raids on December 17 and 24.

A tribal source requesting anonymity said security forces hunting suspected Al-Qaeda member Mohammed al-Hanq clashed on Monday with his bodyguards near Arhab, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Sanaa.

Two of Hanq's company, his son and his nephew, were killed and three others were wounded in the firefight, while he managed to escape, the source added.

Obama's counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan warned on Sunday of possible attacks by Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

"There are indications that Al-Qaeda is planning to carry out an attack against (a) target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy," he said.

Brennan said Washington plans to take "whatever steps necessary" to protect US citizens in Yemen and described as a "determined and concerted effort" a plan by London and Washington to fund Yemen's special Counter-Terrorism Unit.

Yemen has been highlighted by Washington's Transport Security Administration (TSA) as one of 14 "terror linked" countries to which enhanced airline passenger screening would be applied.

The TSA said on Sunday that all passengers flying into the United States will be subject to random screening or so-called "threat-based" screens.

It further mandated that "every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening."

Among the affected countries are Yemen, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia.


by Hammoud Mounassar
(c) 2010 AFP