Britain has issued the highest possible security
alert to British shipping companies operating
off the coast of Yemen, an expert says, amid a
worldwide terror alert focused on the country. Neil Roberts, a senior insurance underwriter at
Lloyd’s Market Association, said the
Department for Transport had issued a “level
three” warning about Yemen on Monday. Under the International Ship and Port Facility
Security (ISPS) code, level three is
“exceptional”, suggesting a “probable or
imminent risk of a security incident”. Insurers have listed Yemen as a high-risk area
for at least the last five years, requiring
shipping companies to alert their underwriters
before they head to the country. But Roberts said that the government advice
suggested a more pressing threat. “They have put it at security level three, which
is unusual,” he said on Tuesday. “This is a wake-up call for British shipowners
that the risk has increased significantly.” Meanwhile, the United States has evacuated
75 embassy staff from the Yemeni capital,
after both the US and United Kingdom told
their citizens to leave due to the threat of
“terrorist attacks.” The US citizens were flown out of the country
on military aircraft on Tuesday, according to
the Pentagon, which declined to comment
further, citing security concerns. The new US measures, announced in a
statement on Tuesday, followed a heightened
security warning from Washington on Friday
that prompted the closure of several Western
embassies in Yemen and several US missions
across the Middle East and Africa. It also came after at least four suspected al-
Qaeda members were killed in what local
tribal leaders said was a US drone strike in
central Yemen early on Tuesday. “The Department urges US citizens to defer
travel to Yemen and those US citizens currently
living in Yemen to depart immediately,” the
statement posted on its website said. The UK’s foreign office, meanwhile, advised
against all travel to Yemen, and “strongly urge
[d] British nationals to leave now”. It said that
all British embassy staff had been temporarily
withdrawn from the country. Italy also urged its citizens to leave, citing the
“particularly high risk of kidnap,” while the
UN’s refugee agency boosted security, though
it did not withdraw its personnel. Tuesday’s warning came after US media
reports indicated that the increased threat
levels were the result of what US intelligence
officials said were intercepted
communications between top al-Qaeda
leaders. The New York Times reported on Monday that
the closure of the embassies was the result of
intercepted electronic communications
between Ayman al-Zawahri, who replaced
Osama bin Laden as head of al-Qaeda, and
Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of Yemen-based affiliate al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP). US sources said that while some type of
message between Zawahri and AQAP was
intercepted recently, there were also other
streams of intelligence that contributed to the
security alert, which was prompted by a threat
from AQAP. “The threat picture is based on a broad range
of reporting, there is no smoking gun in this
threat picture,” a US official told the Reuters
news agency on condition of anonymity. US officials said there was still no information
about a specific target or location of a
potential attack, but the threat to Western
interests had not diminished.
