“Security measures that were taken near vital facilities like embassies and hotels are highly tightened,” the ministry’s website said.

The ministry suggested that “some embassies” implement strict measures that are “normal and precautionary”

“They usually depended on SMS message threats sent by a mentally-deranged person threatening to blow up the embassy which could be for a joke or for nuisance,” the statement said, suggesting that many times these threats serve “to cause embarrassing media reports that spread panic in the country and inflict harm on the national economic, tourism, investment and development efforts.”

On Saturday, the US Embassy in Sanaa warned its staff not to visit Movenpick Hotel following the failed suicide attack that targeted the British ambassador two weeks ago. Yemen had managed to identify the suicide bomber and rounded up the attack’s masterminds and financiers. Yemen said that it is determined to inflict pain on Al-Qaeda.

The Ministry of Defense cited earlier this week “preemptive strikes” in the governorates of  Sana’a, Mareb, Shabwa and Abean.

“The security forces have succeeded in paralyzing and besieging the terrorist networks at their homes,” said a ministry statement.

Meanwhile, President Ali Abdullah Saleh met on Sunday with US Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Miller. Saleh reiterated Yemen’s demand for the extradition of Yemeni citizens being held at Guantanamo Bay.