The United States has again placed its forces and citizens under
heightened alert in Yemen amid concerns of an Al Qaida-led offensive.
The alert came in wake of the killing of three American health workers
by a Yemeni insurgent at a hospital in southern Yemen. A fourth American was
seriously wounded by semi-automatic fire in the 80-bed Jibla Baptist
Hospital. Jibla is located about 200 kilometers south of the capital Sanaa.
The U.S. embassy in Sanaa called on all Americans in Yemen to increase
their security and the State Department urged them to defer non-essential
travel to that country. The embassy said additional security would be
provided for U.S. nationals in the Arab country, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Personnel from the U.S. embassy in Sanaa are in Jibla to assist at this
very difficult time," State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said
on Monday. "We also had security officials that would go and try to look
into the security situation for the other America citizens who are there."
Yemen is said to contain 30,000 Americans, including hundreds of U.S.
military personnel. They are training Yemeni special operations forces and
monitoring Al Qaida movements in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of
Africa. Earlier this month, Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler, who heads the special
operation forces in U.S. Central Command, met Yemeni military commanders to
plan joint operations against Al Qaida.
Officials said a Yemeni suspect was captured in Monday's attack and that
an American investigation team would participate in the interrogations. The
suspect was said to have been connected to an eight-member cell aligned with
Al Qaida that has been targeting Westerners in Yemen.
"We are devastated by this news," International Mission Board spokesman
Larry Cox said. "We are moving quickly to minister to family members located
in Yemen as well as the United States."
The official Yemeni news agency Saba identified the assailant as a
30-year-old Islamic fundamentalist who had acted in cooperation with another
insurgent. The second attacker was named as assassinating a leading Yemeni
opposition figure over the weekend during a political gathering in Sanaa.
