Security high amid fears of militant attacks and ongoing clashes скачать в хорошем качестве

Security high amid fears of militant attacks and ongoing clashes

(4 Jan 2010) SHOTLIST 1. Various of security outside Japanese embassy ++MUTE++ 2. Slow motion tracking shot of security checkpoint 3. Various slow motion tracking shots of security outside German embassy 4. Slow motion tracking shot of security outside British embassy with sign reading (Arabic/English) "British Embassy" 5. Wide of traffic on street STORYLINE Security was stepped up in the Yemeni capital on Monday, as the US and British embassies extended their closure for a second day, amid fears of militant attacks against foreign interests The US and British embassies closed on Sunday after what US officials said were signs that al-Qaida was planning an attack in San''a, possibly against the diplomatic missions. An officer on duty at the US embassy in San''a said on Monday that the closure remained in force. A State Department spokesman, said reopening would be assessed day to day, based on the perceived threat to US personnel. The Foreign Office in London said the British were also reviewing the situation. The French Embassy has also been closed to the public since Sunday, though the staff was working. The Foreign Ministry in Paris, and the ambassador urged French nationals in Yemen to avoid all nonessential movement in the country and to exercise vigilance. Spain''s embassy in San''a also restricted access to the public. Meanwhile on Monday, security forces killed two suspected al-Qaida militants in clashes outside the Yemeni capital, officials said. The clashes took place in a region northeast of the capital where last month the government carried out intensified raids against an al-Qaida cell it said was plotting attacks against foreign interests, possibly including embassies. In that December 17 raid, officials said four would-be suicide bombers were killed. Yemen has carried out a string of raids on al-Qaida hideouts in the past month, part of an intensified effort, backed by the United States, to stamp out the militant group''s growing presence in this nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The US has also said that al-Qaida''s offshoot in Yemen was behind the failed attempt to bomb a US airliner heading to Detroit on Christmas. The United States and Britain have dramatically ramped up counter-terrorism aid to San''a, including helping train and fund special units to combat the group. Yemen has pledged to clamp down on militancy, but government control is weak outside the capital and the country has a history of freeing some alleged militants and tolerating others. The government is also besieged by other mounting crises: a war in the north with Shiite rebels, separatist unrest in the south, and increasing poverty among the population of 22 (m) million. Al-Qaida fighters - including some arriving from war-zones in Iraq and Afghanistan - have built up strongholds in remote provinces of the country, at times aided by tribes disgruntled with the San''a government. Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, was the site of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors. A 2008 attack on the US Embassy killed one American. General David Petraeus, the US general who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, made a surprise visit to Yemen over the weekend, a day after announcing that Washington this year will more than double the 67 (m) million in aid against militarism that it provided Yemen in 2009. The US and Britain are funding a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen, and Britain plans to host an international conference Jan. 28 to come up with a strategy to counter radicalisation in Yemen. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...