Closing Time in Yemen

Posted on Jan 3, 2010

AP / Nasser Nasser

A worker repairs a damaged gate on the U.S. embassy in Yemen after an attack in September 2008. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for that attack, which killed 19.

Both the U.K. and U.S. temporarily closed their embassies in Yemen “for security reasons” on Sunday after increasing concern about al-Qaida threats in the capital city of Sana’a. Yemen has been under heightened scrutiny after the 2009 Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner was traced to the Middle Eastern country. 

The Guardian:

Al-Qaida threats have forced Britain and the United States to close their embassies in Yemen today amid increasing concern about the roots of terrorism in the Arabian peninsula in the wake of the Christmas Day bomb plot.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the British embassy in the capital, Sana’a, was closed today “for security reasons” and a decision would be taken later as to whether it would reopen tomorrow.

A statement posted on the US embassy website said its bureau was closed due to “ongoing threats” from al-Qaida. It said the embassy sent warning last week to US citizens in Yemen urging them to be vigilant. A US embassy spokesman would not comment on whether there had been a specific threat.

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