SANAA, 2 March 2004 — French interests in the Yemeni capital went on red alert yesterday after reports of terror threats against a French cultural center and school, Western diplomats said.
The French Cultural Center and the French School in Sanaa were closed over the weekend, apparently after receiving threats, one diplomat told Arab News, asking not to be identified.
Yemeni workers confirmed the closures and said they had been given paid leave until further notice. But officials at the French Embassy refused to comment.
No word was available on the nature of the threats against French interests here.
Interior Ministry officials said they received a request from the French Embassy to tighten security of buildings housing French foundations or companies.
In recent months, Yemeni authorities stepped up security around Western embassies after terror threats.
Yemen has been cooperating with the United States’ “war on terrorism” since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and rounded up hundreds of suspected Al-Qaeda members.
The American destroyer USS Cole was rammed by an explosives-laden boat in the southern port of Aden in October 2000. Seventeen soldiers were killed in the attack.
In October 2002, a similar attack targeted the French oil supertanker Limburg in the southeastern oil exporting harbor of Al-Dhabba, killing one crewmember. Two months later, a suspected militant shot dead three US missionaries who worked at a Baptist hospital in southern Yemen.
