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Yemen halts giving entry visas at airports

by Hammoud Mounassar Hammoud Mounassar – 2 hrs 25 mins ago

SANAA (AFP) – Yemen stopped granting entry visas at its airports Thursday to prevent militants from entering the country, widening its dragnet against an Al-Qaeda cell believed behind a spate of global attacks.

The measure comes amid a military crackdown on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is entrenched in mountain redoubts east of the capital and claimed responsibility for the botched Christmas Day bid to down a US airliner over Detroit.

"Yemen has stopped granting visas at the airport to halt terrorist infiltration," state news agency Saba announced.

A military official said that "in light of this decision, granting visas to foreigners will take place only through the embassies of Yemen, and after consulting security authorities to verify the identities of travellers."

This is to "prevent the infiltration of any suspected terrorist elements," he was quoted by the defence ministry newspaper September 26 as saying.

Six Yemeni airports receive international flights, and up till now only travellers from a few countries having been required to obtain visas before flying.

Earlier this week, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report warning that AQAP might be training as many as three dozen Americans who converted to Islam in prison.

These people travelled to Yemen upon their release, ostensibly to study Arabic, but "possibly for Al-Qaeda training," the report said.

Under previous regulations, these people would have been allowed to enter the country without being previously vetted.

US officials "are on heightened alert because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping homegrown operatives," the report added.

Sanaa has been under intense international pressure to eradicate AQAP, which has claimed it was behind attacks against Saudi, Korean, Yemeni, and US targets since it was founded a year ago.

In late December, Yemen launched a new military campaign against the group, claiming to have killed or arrested dozens of jihadists and their leaders.

As recently as Wednesday, Yemeni jets bombed a site that was believed to be a hideout for prominent Al-Qaeda members in Maarib province.

A Sanaa official on Thursday praised citizens for their help in the fight against the extremists, saying they had "provided useful information that has strengthened the government's efforts in pursuing Al-Qaeda members."

Also Thursday, an official said one soldier was killed and three were wounded in Maarib province by unknown gunmen who might belong to Al-Qaeda.

The most high-profile Yemeni-American in the country is fugitive radical imam Anwar al-Awlaqi, a native of New Mexico who is now in hiding, presumably in a part of eastern Yemen where his family's tribe holds sway.

A White House aide has directly accused Awlaqi of links with the man suspected of shooting dead 13 people at a Texas military base in November, Major Nidal Hasan.

US Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan has also said he might have had contact with the man who allegedly attempted to blow up the US airliner on December 25, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Officials are also worried about 10 non-Yemeni Americans -- "blonde-haired, blue-eyed types" -- who travelled to Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists, married Yemeni women and fit the profile of Americans that Al-Qaeda has sought to recruit.

AQAP meanwhile has issued a statement celebrating the first anniversary of its founding, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites.

The Tuesday statement claimed the botched strike on the Detroit-bound airliner and a failed attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister.

It claimed AQAP was "an inspiration to Muslims the world over, and a nightmare from which the Zionist-Crusaders and the Arab Apostates cannot seem to awaken."