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Talks in Yemen for top US general Alert shuts US, UK Yemen missions
(about 15 hours later)
Top US soldier Gen David Petraeus has visited Yemen's president amid a renewed offensive against militants, local media and officials say. The US and Britain have shut their Yemen embassies after threats from an al-Qaeda offshoot linked to an alleged failed US plane bomb plot.
The general - responsible for US Middle East and Central Asian operations - reportedly said the US was keen to support Yemen's fight against al-Qaeda. The UK Foreign Office told the BBC its embassy in the capital Sanaa was closed "for security reasons", hours after the US announced its mission had been shut.
President Barack Obama accused Yemen-based militants of orchestrating the failed attack last week on a US plane. It comes a day after top US soldier Gen David Petraeus visited Yemen to pledge US support for its fight with al-Qaeda.
Yemeni officials said more troops had been sent to fight rebels in the east. There are mounting fears lawless Yemen is becoming an al-Qaeda haven.
State media and officials in Yemen reported the meeting between Gen Petraeus and President Ali Abdallah Saleh but there was no immediate word from the US. "The US Embassy in Sanaa is closed today, January 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen," said a statement on the US embassy website on Sunday.
Last week a Yemen-based group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said it had trained the Nigerian man accused of carrying out the attempt to bomb a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. It is not clear when the two missions would reopen.
'Stronger partnership' 'Tighten the noose'
Security sources in the Yemeni capital said reinforcements had been sent to the eastern provinces of Abyan, Bayada and Shawba, where al-Qaeda militants have hideouts, AFP news agency reports. In a statement on its website, the embassy also reminded US citizens in Yemen to be vigilant and aware of security.
The alert level in those regions had been raised, the sources said. The mission was the target of an attack in September 2008, which was blamed on al-Qaeda, and in which 19 people died, including a young American woman.
"These measures are part of operations to hunt down elements of al-Qaeda, prevent any attempt of a response after the raids, and tighten the noose around extremists," one of the sources said. On Saturday, President Barack Obama accused al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula of orchestrating a failed Christmas Day attack on a US plane.
In his weekly address posted on the White House website on Saturday, Mr Obama said more details of the alleged plot were becoming clear. The group said last week it had trained 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who spent time in Yemen last year, to carry out the attempted bombing of the airliner over Detroit.
"We know that [Mr Abdulmutallab] travelled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies," he said. YEMEN FACTS Population: 23.6 million (UN, 2009)Capital: SanaaMajor language: ArabicMajor religion: IslamOil exports: $1.5bn/24.5m barrels (Jan-Oct 2009)Income per capita: US $950 (World Bank, 2008) class="" href="/2/hi/middle_east/8437724.stm">Profile: Al-Qaeda in Yemen class="" href="/2/hi/middle_east/8433519.stm">Attack stokes Yemen terror fears class="" href="/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/784383.stm">Country profile: Yemen class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=7384&edition=2">Send us your comments
"As president, I've made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the Yemeni government, training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al-Qaeda terrorists," Mr Obama added. In its internet statement, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged Muslims to help in "killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places".
"Training camps", he said, had "been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted". Also on Saturday, Gen Petraeus, head of US Middle East and Central Asian operations, visited Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh to discuss the militant threat.
The Yemeni government has expressed its willingness to accept more help but wants economic as well as military aid, analysts say. It came a day after the general announced that the US would more than double counter-terrorism aid to Yemen this year.
The country is confronting some daunting challenges - a fast-growing and impoverished population, diminishing water reserves and the likelihood that its only source of income, oil, will run dry in a few years. The US provided $67m (£41m) in training and support to Yemen last year; only Pakistan receives more, with about $112m, according to AP news agency.
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 on 17 and 24 December that reportedly left more than 60 militants dead.
In his weekly address, President Obama said he had made it "a priority to strengthen our partnership with the Yemeni government, training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al-Qaeda terrorists".
'New type of threat'
He said training camps had already "been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted".
Yemeni security forces have been fighting militants
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC on Sunday that the UK would work with the US to step up Yemen's counter-terrorism efforts.
"This is a new type of threat and it is from a new source which is obviously Yemen," said Mr Brown, "but there are many other potential sources Somalia, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Yemen was thrust to the top of the Western security agenda in October 2000, when 17 US sailors died in an al-Qaeda suicide attack on the USS Cole destroyer in the port of Aden.
Correspondents say the Yemeni government needs economic as well as military aid.
With a fast-growing and impoverished population, the country is facing diminishing water reserves and the likelihood that its only source of income, oil, will run dry in a few years.
But security is just as big a challenge, complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.But security is just as big a challenge, complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.
While the government is weak and unpopular in much of the country, the US has little choice but to work through it to fight al-Qaeda as any overt US presence would almost certainly provoke a public backlash.While the government is weak and unpopular in much of the country, the US has little choice but to work through it to fight al-Qaeda as any overt US presence would almost certainly provoke a public backlash.
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.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.