US shuts embassy as al-Qaeda 'plans attack in Yemen'

US shuts embassy as al-Qaeda 'plans attack in Yemen'

It is not clear when the US embassy in Sanaa will reopen

The US has accused a Yemen-based offshoot of al-Qaeda of being behind the alleged Christmas Day bomb attempt on a US jet flying to Detroit.

There are mounting fears that Yemen is becoming a leading al-Qaeda haven.

Mr Brennan, the US Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, told ABC's This Week TV programme that the group had "several hundred members" in Yemen and was posing an increasing threat there.

"This is something that we've known about for a while," he said. "We're determined to destroy al-Qaeda, whether it's in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or in Yemen."

Mr Brennan added: "We know that they have been targeting our embassy, our embassy personnel."

Vigilance

Last week an organisation called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged Muslims to help in "killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places".

In a statement on its website, the US embassy said it would be closed on Sunday "in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen".

The embassy also reminded US citizens in Yemen to be aware of security.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the British embassy was closed on Sunday and a decision would be taken later on whether to open it on Monday.

Hours earlier, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC: "This is a new type of threat and it is from a new source which is obviously Yemen, but there are many other potential sources Somalia, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Y

Yemeni officials said on Saturday they had sent more troops to fight al-Qaeda militants in the provinces of Abyan, Baida and Shabwa.

"These measures are part of operations to hunt down elements of al-Qaeda... and tighten the noose around extremists," a Yemeni official told AFP news agency.

Analysts say the US has also provided intelligence to Yemeni forces, which carried out raids last month that reportedly left dozens of militants dead.

In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama said militant training camps in Yemen had already "been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted".

Correspondents say the security situation in Yemeni 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.