Monday, January 4, 2010
France follows Britain and US in shutting Yemen embassy
France has become the third Western nation to shut its Yemen embassy, after threats from an al-Qaeda offshoot, the foreign ministry in Paris announced.
The US and UK missions, which closed on Sunday, remain shut.
Yemeni security forces, meanwhile, shot dead two militants north of the capital, Sanaa, said officials.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula last week said it planned an alleged plane bomb attempt on Christmas Day and urged attacks on "crusaders" in embassies.
From Monday all travellers flying to America are being subjected to new security measures, introduced by the US government.
Airport staff will now carry out extra screening of people from 14 countries, including those the US considers to be state-sponsors of terrorism - Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.
Yemen and Nigeria - through which the alleged bomber travelled - also face the new restrictions.
Passengers travelling from other countries will be checked at random.
On Monday in Paris, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters their Yemen ambassador had decided a day earlier to suspend public access to their embassy.
French citizens in the country had been warned to remain vigilant and to limit their movements, he added.
The US was the first to announce the closure of its embassy on Sunday, citing "ongoing threats" by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and the UK followed suit.
A US diplomat told the Reuters news agency on Monday: "The embassy is still closed again today... We are continuing to make the security review."
The Yemeni authorities have tightened security measures at Sanaa's airport, as well as around several other embassies.
The US embassy was the target of an attack in September 2008 in which 19 people died, including a young American woman. The attack was blamed on AQAP.
On Sunday, the US deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counter-terrorism said there were "indications that al-Qaeda is planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy".
John Brennan told ABC the group had "several hundred members" in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and was posing an increasing threat.
Last week, AQAP urged Muslims to help in "killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places" and said it was behind the failed attempt to destroy the Northwest Airlines Airbus A330 on Christmas Day.
Speaking to CNN, Mr Brennan said there were "indications" a radical US cleric of Yemeni origin had links both to the Nigerian charged with the bomb plot, and the man accused of the Fort Hood shootings in November.
He said the preacher, Anwar al-Awlaki, had had direct contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, while he was allegedly being trained by AQAP operatives last year.
Anwar al-Awlaki
Mr Brennan said Anwar al-Awlaki seemed to be linked to the bomb plot
Profile: Anwar al-Awlaki
It was clear, he said, that Mr Awlaki had also been in touch with Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army major charged with shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood.
On Saturday, the head of US Central Command, Gen David Petraeus, visited Yemen's President Ali Abdallah Saleh to pledge support for its fight with al-Qaeda, after Washington doubled its counter-terrorism aid.
Yemeni officials last week said they had sent more troops to hunt down al-Qaeda militants in the provinces of Abyan, Baida and Shabwa.
Correspondents say the security situation in Yemen is complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.
But the prospects of re-asserting central government authority over the lawless areas where al-Qaeda is based look, in the opinion of some analysts, remote - even with beefed-up American support.
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