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Yemen's elite Republican Guard forces fired rifles, tear gas, and water cannons on over 100,000 marchers on a road leading to the capital of Sanaa, killing at least 9 and wounding at least 90. Participants in the so-called "March of Life" followed a 270-kilometre route from the southern city of Taez, a major opposition stronghold. The march reportedly began with some 15,000 participants but grew over four days as it made its way to the capital. They object to a transfer of power deal agreed to by outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in which he agreed to step down in...

Tribesmen and al-Qaeda militants killed 22 people, all but two of them soldiers, and captured dozens of others in separate attacks over a 24-hour period, security and tribal sources said on Friday. "Al-Qaeda militants ambushed a military patrol near Safer (oil fields), in (the eastern province of) Marib, killing 11 soldiers," a security official in Sanaa said. The assailants used machine-guns in Friday's attack. Also in Marib, two soldiers were killed, two wounded and 30 taken prisoner in a clash with tribesmen, said another security official and a tribal source. Six tribesmen were also wounded. The tribesmen, armed with anti-aircraft...

Thousands of protesters gathered in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, Saturday to celebrate the resignation of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and call for their own president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to step down. The protesters began marching toward the Egyptian embassy but were confronted and pushed back by a group of men armed with sticks. There were conflicting reports as to whether the armed men were police or government supporters. The gathering points for Saturday's protests were Sana'a University and the city's Tahrir Square, which bears the same name as the rallying point for the protests in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

In the days after the foiled Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, some were quick to call for a new front in the war on terror, this time in Yemen, where the Nigerian-born "Undie-Bomber" was in contact with al-Qaida. While the emphasis on Yemen from a counterterrorism perspective has waxed and waned over the years, it has long been on our terror radar, going back to at least the late 1990s. It is unfortunate that we have had to become intimately reacquainted with Yemen, a little-known but strategically located country with an ancient history, including being the home of...

Impoverished Yemen is reeling under the threat of Al Qaeda, northern Shiite rebels and southern secessionists, but a lack of water is putting its ancient capital at even greater risk, experts say. Within a decade - or even less - Sanaa could become the first waterless capital in the world, they warn, adding the outlook is also bleak for the rest of this parched country where wells in some regions are already dry. A conference in London on Wednesday will discuss Yemen's anti-terrorism drive, but it is unclear whether the water woes that experts say are likely to fuel more...

Yemen's president said he is ready to talk to al-Qaida members who renounce violence, suggesting he could show them the same kind of leniency he has granted militants in the past despite U.S. pressure to crack down on the terror group. Yemen is moving cautiously in the fight against al-Qaida, worried over a potential backlash in a country where anger at the U.S. and extremism are widespread. Thousands of Yemenis are battle-hardened veterans of past "holy wars" in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Iraq, and though most are not engaged in violence now they preserve a die-hard al-Qaida ideology. "Any movement...

As Yemen's beleaguered government launches a new offensive against al-Qaida, the other conflict in the troubled Arabian peninsula state takes a shocking twist: The regime and tribal rebels in the north are both using child soldiers, according to aid officials. Child soldiers have been a feature of warfare throughout history, although these days there are international laws that prohibit the use of children under 18 in conflicts. But they are difficult to enforce and are widely ignored, even though persistent failure to prevent children taking part in combat is considered a war crime by the International Criminal Court. In Yemen,...

The U.S. Embassy in Yemen says it has reopened after Yemeni forces successfully dealt with a security threat that prompted its closure for two days. The U.S. mission in Sana'a said Yemen had addressed a "specific area of concern" by conducting a counter-terrorism operation Monday north of Sana'a. It also warned that the threat of terrorism against American interests in Yemen remains high. The British Embassy in Sanna'a also reopened Tuesday but kept its public services suspended. The United States and Britain closed their embassies in Sana'a Sunday due to warnings of a possible al-Qaida attack. Yemen says its forces...

The Yemeni government ordered an "unprecedented" number of troops into a region controlled by a branch of Al Qaeda, as the U.S. and Britain, concerned about the threat of terrorism, both closed their embassies in the capital of Sana. The Obama administration increased the pressure on Islamic militants in Yemen Sunday after the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for plotting the failed attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. The White House's top counterterrorism official didn't rule out U.S. military action. Yemen deployed troops into provinces east of the capital to combat a growing...

Press Releases Embassy Closed in Response to Security Threat The U.S. Embassy in Sana’a is closed today, January 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack American interests in Yemen. On December 31, the U.S. Embassy sent a warden message to Americans citizens in Yemen to remind them of the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against American citizens and interests throughout the world. The U.S. Embassy reminds U.S. citizens to maintain a high level of vigilance and to practice enhanced security awareness.

Members of the tiny Jewish community in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, say they have not received their monthly food rations or any government financial assistance for the past three months. Rabbi Yahya Yusuf, leader of the 65-member community, told IRIN the Jews had been “suffering terribly” of late; many had been finding it very difficult to even feed their children. “We have sold everything we possess to buy food for our families. We even sold our women’s gold rings. We have run out of money,” he said. Yusuf said that two weeks ago they had staged a protest outside government headquarters...

The U.S. has launched two missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, two U.S. officials told Fox News, signaling an escalation of the Obama administration's fight against the terrorist organization. The politically sensitive strikes Thursday, first reported by ABC News, supplement efforts already under way by the government of Yemen to go after Al Qaeda in the country, the officials told Fox News, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation. Such an operation is particularly sensitive in Yemen. "It's very difficult for Yemen to ask the U.S. for help given the nature of their...

An Iranian hospital in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa has been ordered shut down amid reports that the facility was used as cover by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security for support and funding of Shi'ite Zaydi rebels. The 60-bed hospital has four operating rooms and six intensive care units. The ostensible reason for the closing was the hospital’s failure to pay rent. However reports from Sanaa say it was due to the illicit Iranian intelligence activities from the facility.

Armed tribesmen kidnapped four foreign tourists, believed to be Italians, in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday and took them to a tribal area outside the city, security and tribal sources said on Tuesday. The attack is likely to further damage Yemen's nascent tourism sector and add to the security concerns of foreign firms developing its oil and gas sector. The nationality of the four was not immediately confirmed, but some sources said they were believed to be Italians. Italy's foreign ministry said it was aware of reports of the kidnapping but had no information about the nationalities of the...

(CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Yemen warned Americans there Monday it has received a report of a possible attack against its compound in Sanaa. The embassy, in a warden message, said it "has received a threat against the embassy compound regarding a possible attack which could take place in the foreseeable future."

NOTE: The following text is a quote: https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=94759 YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Yemen Kidnapping Alert CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Middle East / N. Africa - Yemen 16 Dec 2008 Printer Friendly Email Article RELATED REPORTS 12 Dec 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: YEMEN ALERT FOR WESTERN HOTELS 8 Dec 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: CONTINUED THREATS, YEMEN 18 Sep 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: YEMEN AUTHORIZED DEPARTURE 17 Sep 2008 U.S. EMBASSY SANA'A ATTACKED 17 Sep 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: U.S. EMBASSY SANA'A ATTACK U.S. Embassy Sana’a issued the following Warden Message on December 16: The U.S. Embassy...

Excerpt - DUBAI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The United States has closed its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa after an attack on the heavily fortified building, al Jazeera television said on Thursday. It was unclear from the report whether the closure was temporary or permanent. ~ snip ~

EXPLOSION HEARD NEAR U.S. EMBASSY IN YEMEN -AL-ARABIYA TV

(CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, closed Tuesday after three mortar rounds detonated near the embassy compound, according to an embassy statement. No embassy personnel were injured in the incident, which happened around 12:40 p.m. local time, it said. "There are reports of injuries at a girls school in the neighborhood and to Yemeni security personnel stationed around the embassy's perimeter," the statement said -snip-

Shootings on the US embassy with Sanaa: the wounded and stopped attacker SANAA - a man with drawn with the automatic weapon Tuesday at dawn against the embassy from the United States with Sanaa and the police officers in faction in front of the chancellery counteracted, wounding the attacker before stopping it, one learned from Yemeni police source. The man, whose identity was not revealed, is currently questioned by the services of safety, one specified. The American embassy, located in the North-East of Sanaa, is well kept by the Yemeni police force.