Who knows if this was supposed to be the big show or not.
The story comes from The Telegraph.
Yemen ‘foils al-Qaeda plot to take foreign workers hostage at oil terminal’
Officials said on Wednesday its security forces had thwarted an al-Qaeda plan to seize the al-Dhabah oil export terminal, where foreign nationals were working.
The terrorist group had also been planning to target the cities of Mukalla and Bawzeer and to attack the Belhaf gas plant, Rageh Badi, a Yemeni government spokesman said. The government said it had saturated the region with troops to protect the facilities.
Officials said the attack was related to the Western security alerts that have forced several countries to evacuate diplomatic staff from Yemen, as well as close embassies around the world.
The alerts were sparked after the US government intercepted communications between Ayman al-Zawahri, the al-Qaeda leader and Nasser al-Wahishi, its local head in Yemen, about plans for a major attack.
An American drone strike on suspected al-Qaeda operatives killed seven in Yemen on Wednesday as US forces continued their efforts to disrupt advanced planning for any possible attack.
Two vehicles were incinerated in the drone strike in Shabwa province, leaving the seven occupants dead. It was the fifth drone strike in ten days.
US officials said on Wednesday that the Yemeni plot was just one component of al-Qaeda’s efforts and told the Washington Post that the drone strikes were “buying time” in the battle against the group.
While Yemeni officials have been angered by the scale of the US response to the threat, the government spokesman said on Wednesday the threat had not gone away.
“Concerns remain high about other plots and plans by al-Qaeda,” Mr Badi said. “This pushed some Western countries to close down their embassies and evacuate their diplomats.”
Yemen’s government has boosted security around government buildings and embassies as the evacuations continue.
Security checkpoints have been set up and soldiers in armored vehicles are patrolling the streets of Sanaa, the capital.
It suffered a set back when eight troops were killed, including a brigadier general, when their helicopter was shot down over a pipeline.
The US government shut 22 embassies and consulates from West Africa to South Asia and flew its personnel out of Yemen on Tuesday. Britain removed its Yemen-based diplomatic team at the same time. Both countries advised their nationals to leave.
The alert was focused on an imminent threat around the Eid festival that marks the end of Ramadan tonight but has since been extended until the end of August.
“Its too early to tell whether we’ve actually disrupted anything,” a senior US official told the Washington Post newspaper.
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