State Dept. issues travel alert, shuts embassies, citing al-Qaeda threat

Security concerns and "an abundance of caution" will force the closure of embassies and consulates in predominantly Muslims countries on Sunday and possibly beyond, the State Department announced. Britain announced it will also close its embassy in Yemen on Sunday and Monday.

The State Department also issued a travel alert Friday morning for U.S. citizens due to the "potential for terrorist attacks, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and possibly occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula." The alert expires on Aug. 31.

A U.S. official told Reuters the same information that led to the embassy closures prompted the worldwide travel alert.

"Current information suggests that al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August," the department said.

A senior State Department official also told Al Jazeera on Friday the department has instructed all U.S. embassies and consulates that would have normally been open on Sunday to suspend operations, specifically on Aug. 4.

That means 21 embassies and consulates in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan and other Muslim-majority countries, where those facilities have normal business hours on Sundays, would be closed. Embassies and consultates outside the Muslim world are generally not open on Sundays.

"The Department has been apprised of information that indicates we should institute these precautionary steps," the State Department official said. "We have taken this measure out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting our installations."

Britain also took action Friday in Yemen, announcing it would close its embassy there on Sunday and Monday as a precaution.

Britain, which coordinates closely on intelligence matters with Washington, stopped short of releasing a similar region-wide alert but added that some embassy staff in Yemen had been withdrawn "due to security concerns."

British embassies and consulates elsewhere in the Middle East were to remain open.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee told CNN on Friday the threat appeared to be linked to al-Qaeda.

"It's my understanding that it is al-Qaeda linked," he said. "And the threat emanates in the Middle East and in Central Asia."

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Thursday told reporters the embassies would be closed specifically on Sunday, with an assessment afterward on whether to reopen them.

"It is possible we may have additional days of closing as well," she said.

Harf on Thursday did not specify from which part of the world the threat was detected.

Wednesday marks the 15th anniversary of deadly embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania -- both of which are normally closed on Sundays. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for those bombings, which killed more than 220 people and injured more than 4,000 others.

The United States has been especially cautious about security since an attack on its consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 last year.

The attack killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, and led critics in Congress to accuse the State Department of not providing sufficient security.

Al Jazeera and wire services