- By
- MARIA ABI-HABIB
- ,
- MARGARET COKER
- and
- SIOBHAN GORMAN
- CONNECT
The U.S., however, declined to comment on the Yemenis' reports and said it hadn't changed its assessment of an al Qaeda threat that has prompted it to close embassies in the Middle East and issue a world-wide travel alert for the month of August.
"We of course have seen those reports. We do work closely with the Yemeni government on counterterrorism operations," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "Our embassy remains closed, and we continue to evaluate the threats on a daily basis. We are keeping it closed to keep our people safe and because we believe a threat remains."
A Yemeni official directly involved in the counterterrorism relationship with the U.S. said Wednesday that his government this week had foiled what he called an al Qaeda plan to strike a Yemeni military installations in San'a, the capital. The official also said Yemeni security forces have uncovered a plot against the Mina al Dhaba oil terminal at the Mukallah port in southern Yemen and plans to attack a pipeline in Shabwa province, where Wednesday morning's strike against alleged militants took place.
A Yemeni government spokesman, Rejah Badi, separately detailed the same allegedly foiled plots.
The Yemeni officials didn't provide details into how the alleged plots were discovered or who they said were behind them.
The Yemeni government has a checkered history battling the homegrown terrorist network known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the branch of the global terrorist organization that has for years found safe haven in the small nation. The group's main leaders have been killed by U.S. counterterrorism operations such as drone strikes, and reports of Yemeni security officials eradicating local militant threats have often been short-lived. Militants and tribesmen unaffiliated with the terrorist group have routinely sabotaged Yemen's energy infrastructure, attacks that Yemen has little track-record of preventing.
The U.S. State Department issued a global alert on Friday about possible al Qaeda attacks during the month of August and has shut most of its Middle East embassies through Saturday to protect against the threat. U.S. officials believe active plots are being pursued by AQAP to strike Western targets in the Middle East and potentially beyond.
U.S. officials have said they believe that the threat is focused more on American interests than those of other countries.
After Wednesday's Yemeni announcements, U.S. officials said the threat from al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate that has left 19 diplomatic posts temporarily closed hasn't abated. "The AQAP threat to Western interests inside Yemen and potentially beyond remains real and serious," a U.S. official said.
Wednesday's military strike against alleged militants in the southern Shabwa province, which was described by Yemeni officials, was the fifth strike in two weeks and the second in the province over the last week. It is unclear who was killed in the strike. Yemeni officials say that only one person killed in the previous week's missile attacks was on their most-wanted terrorist list.
Also wasn't clear whether the strikes were connected with the oil pipeline plot that Yemeni officials say they foiled in the area.
Since taking over as president in the spring of 2012, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi has carried on close counterterrorism cooperation with America, including the two drone programs, run by the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC.
Local sensitivities about the bilateral counterterrorism cooperation have spiked in recent years due to high-profile civilian deaths by U.S. missiles, leading to a low visibility in the country of the U.S. role in the fight against al Qaeda.
A U.S. official said Tuesday that recent drone strikes in Yemen have been used, in part, to try to disrupt what the U.S. has characterized as the broad regional plot.
—Hakim Almasmari in San'a contributed to this article.Write to Maria Abi-Habib at [email protected] and Margaret Coker at [email protected]
