Al Qaeda threat ‘most serious in years’

The al Qaeda threat that closed US embassies in the Middle East is the most serious in years and the “chatter” among suspected terrorists is reminiscent of what preceded the Sept 11 attacks, a US lawmaker who is briefed on intelligence said.

The State Department closed 21 embassies and consulates and issued a worldwide travel alert warning Americans that al Qaeda may be planning attacks this month, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

“There is an awful lot of chatter out there,” said Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

He said “chatter” — electronically monitored communications among terrorism suspects about the planning of a possible attack — was “very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11.”

The threat also has prompted some European countries to close their embassies in Yemen, where an al Qaeda affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is based.

“This is the most serious threat that I’ve seen in the last several years,” Chambliss said.

A US intelligence official said there was disagreement within the intelligence community over whether the potential target was in Yemen or more broadly in the region, which was why the State Department’s alert described the threat as “possibly occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.”

The threat information also is coming ahead of the Eid celebration at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan later this week and just over a month before the anniversary of al Qaeda’s Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

A Sept 11 attack last year killed the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi.

Chambliss said one of the surveillance programmes revealed by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had helped gather intelligence about this threat.

Those programmes “allow us to have the ability to gather this chatter,” he said. “If we did not have these programmes then we simply wouldn’t be able to listen in on the bad guys.”

Security measures were particularly strict in the Yemeni capital where Britain, France and Germany all closed their embassies too following the US warning that lawmakers in Washington said involved al Qaeda’s Yemen and Saudi Arabia branch. But the US alert spread across most Arab capitals and extended beyond the Arab world to Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Israel, with embassies and other diplomatic missions closed on what was the first day of the working week in many Islamic countries as well as the Jewish state.

In Sana’a, special forces with armoured personnel carriers were stationed outside the US embassy and the missions of Britain, France and Germany. Police and army checkpoints were set up on all the Yemeni capital’s main thoroughfares.

Residents said they heard the sound of a drone flying over, which could only be American as Washington is the sole power to operate the unmanned aircraft in the region.

Washington considers Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the jihadist network’s most active and dangerous branch, and has waged an intensifying drone war against the group’s militants in Yemen.

In Jordan, authorities beefed up security around the closed US mission.

“Authorities have conducted a sweep for explosives at all US diplomatic locations and beefed up security measures around the US embassy,” a Jordanian security official said.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice chaired White House talks to review Washington’s response to the threat it revealed on Friday of a major attack by al Qaeda. President Barack Obama did not attend but was briefed afterwards.

Although the US has responded to terrorist threats before by closing diplomatic missions, this was believed to be the most widespread closure ever.

“I’ve spent 21 years in the CIA, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen 22 embassies closed simultaneously. This is very, very unusual,” Robert Baer, a former US case officer in the Middle East, told CNN.