Missions in lockdown as US eyes Qaeda threat

AFP/Sanaa

Security was tight at US missions in and around the Arab world yesterday amid urgent Washington talks on an Al Qaeda threat that prompted the closure of at least 25 diplomatic missions.

Measures were particularly strict in Yemen’s capital, where Britain, France and Germany also closed their embassies following a US warning which lawmakers in Washington said involved Al Qaeda’s joint Yemeni and Saudi branch.

But the US alert spread across most Arab capitals and extended farther afield to Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Israel, with embassies and other diplomatic missions closed yesterday.

In Sanaa, special forces with armoured personnel carriers were stationed outside the American embassy and the missions of Britain, France and Germany.

Police and army checkpoints were set up on all the Yemeni capital’s main thoroughfares.

Residents said they heard the sound of a drone overhead, which could only be American as Washington is the sole power to operate the unmanned aircraft in the region.

Washington considers Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the network’s most active and dangerous branch, and has waged an intensifying drone war against AQAP militants in Yemen.

In Jordan, authorities beefed up security around the closed US mission.

“Authorities have conducted a sweep for explosives at all US diplomatic locations and beefed up security measures around the US embassy,” a Jordanian security official told AFP.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice chaired White House talks to review Washington’s response to the threat it revealed on Friday of a major Al Qaeda attack during August in the Middle East or North Africa.

President Barack Obama did not attend but was briefed afterwards.

Early last week, “the president instructed his national security team to take all appropriate steps to protect the American people in light of a potential threat occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula”, a White House statement said.

Although Washington has responded to terrorist threats before by closing diplomatic missions, this was believed to be the most widespread closure ever, covering at least 25 embassies and consulates.

“I’ve spent 21 years in the CIA, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen 22 embassies closed simultaneously. This is very, very unusual,” Robert Baer, a former US case officer in the Middle East, told CNN.

Baer said the US action comes amid an Al Qaeda resurgence, including prison breaks in Libya and Iraq in which hundreds of inmates have escaped, and turmoil in Egypt, Mali and elsewhere in the region.

US lawmakers briefed on the intelligence called the threat reporting among the most serious they have seen in recent years, reminiscent of the intelligence chatter that preceded the September 11, 2001 attacks.  

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Michael McFaul, said it was “probably one of the most specific and credible threats I’ve seen, perhaps, since 9/11”.

An attack appeared to be “imminent”, possibly timed to coincide with the last night of the holy month of Ramadan, he said. Pages 13, 16

Closure of embassies extended

The United States said yesterday it was extending the closure of some of its embassies and consulates in the Mideast and Africa through August 10, over security fears. The US State Department said diplomatic posts in Doha, Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis were to be closed today through Saturday of the coming week.