Suspected Al-Qaeda militants attacked two Western targets in Yemen, firing a rocket at a senior British diplomat’s car and killing a Frenchman at a gas and oil installation.

France became the latest country to issue a security alert, telling citizens heading to Britain to exercise caution due to a very high risk of terrorist action there that could target public transport and tourist sites.

That followed a US alert on Sunday warning American citizens to exercise caution if traveling in Europe. The same day, Britain raised the threat level to “high” from “general” for its citizens traveling to Germany and France.

But in Berlin, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said he saw no indications of any imminent attack on Germany, even though the country remained in general a target.

Talking about possible attacks played into the hands of terrorists by fueling public fears, he said.

“Public discussion is something terrorists use because they want to spread fear. We’re working but not talking a lot,” de Maiziere told Deutschlandfunk radio.

Security sources say the trigger for the series of warnings was intelligence about a possible Al-Qaeda-related plot to launch assaults on European cities, modelled on the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-based gunmen that killed about 170 people.
 

“I can only urge people to believe us when we say that all the security agencies are working all out and professionally,” de Maiziere said, calling the danger to Germany “hypothetical.”

“No one should doubt that Germany is a target for terrorists but on the other hand there are no concrete, immediate attack plans that we are aware of.”

He said he could not confirm accounts from Pakistani intelligence officials that eight militants of German nationality had been killed by a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan on Monday.

“What astonishes me is that this attack reportedly happened the day before yesterday in an inaccessible area by unmanned drones and at the same time identity cards are found. That doesn’t fit together,” de Maiziere said.

“I regard it as possible but not confirmed,” he added.

In Yemen, a Frenchman was killed in a shooting incident inside the compound of Austrian-owned oil and gas group OMV, France’s Foreign Ministry said.

Britain’s Foreign Office said a missile was fired at an embassy vehicle carrying the deputy head of the British mission in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. One staff member suffered minor injuries.

Yemen’s security challenges, including from the local arm of Al-Qaeda and separatists in the south of the country, have raised Western and Gulf Arab concerns it could become a failed state and a haven for militants.

Sunday’s vague US alert about attack risks in Europe was evidence of Washington’s heightened sensitivity to possible attacks after more than a year of failed but brazen strikes on domestic US targets by homegrown militants, often Americans.

French authorities issued an advisory to travelers late on Tuesday on what they called the very high risk of a terrorist attack in Britain. “We advise (travelers) to be extremely vigilant on public transport and at popular tourist sites,” the foreign ministry said on its website.

Britain’s threat level at home was raised to “severe” on Jan. 22 this year. “The French saying an attack is highly likely is true because that is where our threat level is,” said a spokeswoman for London’s Counter Terrorism Command.

In Bulgaria, police raided offices and homes belonging to an unregistered branch of Islamic foundation Al Waqf-Al Islami in a joint operation with prosecutors and the state agency for national security, the interior ministry said.

Police found propaganda materials inciting religious hatred and seized documents proving the branch was funded illegally.

Al Waqf-Al Islami was set up in the Netherlands and funded mainly by “Salafi circles” from Saudi Arabia, the ministry said, referring to an ultra-conservative brand of Islam.