SANAA, 13 February — Yemen said yesterday that it had taken all necessary steps to prevent a terrorist attack following a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warning that a Yemeni national could be planning a strike on US interests.
“Security services have taken all necessary steps to prevent any act harming security and stability,” a spokesman told the official SABA news agency. A Yemeni official told AFP: “We have taken these threats seriously. We are not unduly worried, but we have taken, all the same, precautionary steps to boost security of US interests.”
The FBI said on Monday it had evidence that an attack on the United States or against US interests in Yemen could occur as early as Tuesday (yesterday) and named the suspected mastermind as Fawaz Yahya Al-Rabeei. The information emerged during interrogations of Afghan war prisoners, it said. The senior security official played down the significance of the FBI information but said Yemen was taking no chances. “We consider these threats as nothing else but threats,” the official told Reuters. “But we are always cautious and alert, we take into account anything even if it is not serious.”
SABA news agency quoted an unidentified security official as saying Yemen had received information from the United States and Britain on “the possibility of a person called Fawaz Yahya Al-Rabeei entering Yemen from Afghanistan and carrying out sabotage acts against US interests”. The official said it was not known if Rabeei had entered the country.
The FBI said one or more operatives might be involved in the alleged plot in Yemen and listed the names of 16 associates of Rabeei. It said most of them were Yemenis. It did not specifically link the plot to Al-Qaeda or specify possible targets.
Offering no details on target or timing, the FBI said the warning was based on intelligence gathered in Afghanistan and interviews of Taleban and Al-Qaeda detainees.
The agency issued a photograph of Rabeei, also known as Furqan, who is believed to be a Yemeni national traveling on a Yemeni passport. His current whereabouts are unknown. The FBI said there may be other operatives involved and listed about a dozen Rabeei associates.
