Washington: The US embassy in Yemen is closed to the public for the time being in response to a string of attacks on foreign diplomats in the past two months, the State Department said on Wednesday.
“Due to recent attacks against Western interests in Yemen, we have temporarily suspended operations of our embassy in Sanaa to the public,” spokesperson Jennifer Psaki was quoted as saying in a statement.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf described the closure, which affects US services to the public like visa processing, as precautionary.
“The United States remains firmly committed to supporting Yemen as it works to achieve meaningful reform through its ongoing transition process and to enhance security for the Yemeni people,” Harf said in a statement.
A second US official said no American personnel have been evacuated from Sana’a. Two French diplomats were killed and another injured on Monday in an Al Qaida assault in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, becoming the latest casualties in the attacks on foreigners over the past two months.
At least six foreigners have been kidnapped in Sana’a over the period, including two British nationals and a German. Last week, suspected Al Qaida gunmen fired at and injured a German diplomat in the city after he resisted a kidnapping attempt.
Yemen-based Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been holding an Iranian diplomat since July last year and a Saudi diplomat since May 2012.
The Yemeni government has waged a wide-scale assault on Al Qaida strongholds in the country’s southern territories since last week, killing scores of militants. The group has vowed to hit back.
The Obama administration has stepped up drone strikes on the AQAP for the past two years.
The US embassy in Sanaa was last closed for about two weeks in August last year due to terrorism threats, along with some two dozens of other American diplomatic missions across the Middle East and North Africa.
