US, UK pull staff out of Yemen over threat by al-Qaida
Print Edition
The US military evacuated non-essential US government personnel from Yemen yesterday due to the high risk of attacks by al-Qaida that has triggered temporary shutdowns of 19 diplomatic posts across the Middle East and Africa.
The State Department said it ordered the evacuation “due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks” and said US citizens in Yemen should leave immediately because of an “extremely high” security threat level.
“As staff levels at the embassy are restricted, our ability to assist US citizens in an emergency and provide routine consular services remains limited and may be further constrained by the fluid security situation,” its travel warning said. The US Embassy is in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital.
Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said US citizens who choose to stay in Yemen should make their own contingency emergency plans.
Britain’s Foreign Office also said it had evacuated all staff from its embassy in Yemen due to security concerns. The office said the embassy staff were “temporarily withdrawn to the UK” yesterday, but declined further comment. Previously, the UK had said the embassy would be closed until the end of the Muslim festival of Eid later this week.
Yemeni security officials said a suspected US drone strike at about 2am local time yesterday killed four alleged al-Qaida members in a volatile eastern province. The drone fired a missile at a car carrying the four men, setting it on fire and killing all of them, the officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the decision to evacuate the embassy, made earlier, was connected to the drone strike.
Yemeni officials said they believed one of the dead was Saleh Jouti, a senior al-Qaida member. It was the fourth drone attack in the past two weeks to hit a car believed to be carrying al-Qaida members.
Pentagon press secretary George Little said the US Air Force transported State Department personnel out of Sanaa early yesterday. “The US Department of Defense continues to have personnel on the ground in Yemen to support the US State Department and monitor the security situation,” Little added.
The Yemeni government criticized the US and UK decisions.
Its embassy in Washington said it “serves the interests of the extremists and undermines the exceptional cooperation” between Yemen and the international community in the fight against terrorism.
It said it appreciated the concern of foreign governments for their citizens but said the government had taken all precautions to ensure the security of foreign missions in the capital.
A US intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat said the shutdown of embassies in the Middle East and Africa was instigated by an intercepted secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, about plans for a major attack.
On Sunday, the State Department closed a total of 19 diplomatic posts until next Saturday.
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