A Yemeni soldier searches a vehicle at a checkpoint as authorities tighten security measures in Sana'a. Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA  The US has stepped up the intensity of its drone strikes on suspected al-Qaida targets in Yemen, carrying out eight strikes in two weeks in response to fears of a terror attack in the capital, Sana'a.  Yemeni officials said at least seven Saudi Arabian militants were among those killed in the three strikes on Thursday, as the country was celebrating Eid at the end of Ramadan.  Since July 27, drone attacks have killed 34 suspected militants, according to an Associated Press tally. Washington has closed several diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa in response to intercepted information, and the US and Britain also evacuated diplomatic staff from Sana'a.  The first on the latest wave of drone strikes occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning in the Wadi Abeeda area of the central province of Marib. Six people, who locals said were al-Qaida militants, were killed.  Wadi Abeeda, simmering with anti-government sentiment and, despite its proximity to the provincial capital, largely bereft of any meaningful government presence, has long been used as a refuge by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)-linked militants, according to tallies kept by the Washington-based thinktank New America foundation. The area, a smattering of oasis-fed farms surrounded by a harsh, desolate desert, has experienced four strikes this year.  "We're fed up," said Nasser Muhtam, the head of a Mareb-based NGO. "Our houses are shaking and our children are scared during the morning of Eid, when we should be celebrating."  The second and third strikes occurred in the far eastern province of Hadramawt hours apart, miles away from each other, east of the provincial capital of Mukalla. A late afternoon strike killed three, while the day's final attack killed three others roughly 10km to the east about five hours later. Yemeni officials said the dead were all al-Qaida-linked militants, but definitive identification was not forthcoming. In the bulk of strikes, the bodies of those killed are burned beyond recognition.  On Wednesday Yemeni authorities said they had foiled a plot by al-Qaida to seize Mukalla, a key port and the Yemen's fifth largest city, as well as two major oil and gas export terminals.  The latest attacks come after the announcement of a raised terror alert level from Yemeni and US officials, tied to intercepted communications between al-Qaida emir Ayman al-Zawahiri and AQAP head Nasir al-Wuhayshi. Fears of an al-Qaida attack have shuttered western embassies in the Yemeni capital, prompting the United States and United Kingdom to evacuate non-essential staff, while spurring Yemeni security forces to increase their presence in the capital and a series of flyovers by small, unarmed spy aircraft in the skies of Sana'a.  The reported terror threat coincided with the end of a state visit by Yemeni president Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi to the United States, where he was received by US president Barack Obama in the Oval Office and publically feted by top American officials like secretary of state John Kerry and secretary of defence Chuck Hagel, who hailed the Yemeni leader as a visionary and a crucial US partner. Hadi returned to Sana'a this week after a stopover in Saudi Arabia to meet King Abdullah.  But some in the Yemeni government have criticised the American response to the intelligence interceptions. Yemen's foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi condemned the US and UK's decision to evacuate their staff, saying the move "undermined the exceptional co-operation between Yemen and the international coalition against terrorism".  For many Yemenis, however, it's their own government that deserves criticism. The Yemeni government has long granted permission for the United States to carry out drone strikes on its territory and, in a break with his predecessor, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, Hadi has publically acknowledged that fact, indicated his support for the strikes themselves. Over the past few days, the sheer frequency of the strikes – in addition to their timing – has inflamed popular opposition to Sana'a's policy of allowing the strikes.  Longstanding grumbling alleging that Hadi has delivered the Americans a blank check to strike the country at will have grown comparatively open, with some going as far as to cast the Yemeni leader as little more than an American puppet. The drone strikes may be killing militants. But most here stress that that's just one of their results.
Eight strikes hit city in two weeks as Obama administration targets suspected al-Qaida militants amid broader terror fears