Al-Qaeda leaders' talks 'sparked US embassy closures'

Intercepted conversations between two
senior al-Qaeda figures prompted Sunday's
closure of many American diplomatic
missions, US media report.
The talk, involving top leader Ayman al-
Zawahiri, represented one of the most serious
plots since the 9/11 attacks, the New York
Times says .
The US earlier said the closures in North Africa
and the Middle East were "out of an
abundance of caution".
Some 20 US embassies and consulates were
shut on Sunday.
A state department global travel alert , issued
last week, is also in force until the end of
August.
US diplomatic posts in Abu Dhabi, Amman,
Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai,
Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa and Tripoli
will remain closed until Saturday.
Several European countries have also
temporarily shut missions in Yemen and the
UK Foreign Office is advising against all travel
to the country.
At press briefings, both the White House and
the US state department said the threat came
from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP), but refused to divulge further details,
reports the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan, in
Washington.
But according to the New York Times, the US
intercepted communications between Zawahiri
and the group's head in Yemen, Nasser al-
Wuhayshi.
The paper said that no targets had been singled
out in the discussions, but that a possible
attack appeared to be imminent.
A US official told the Associated Press news
agency that Zawahiri's message had been
picked up several weeks ago and appeared
initially targeted at Yemen.
US lawmakers have said it was a huge plot in
the final stages, but have offered no specifics.
On Monday, a top member of the House
intelligence committee Dutch Ruppersberger
told CNN the warnings were not designed to
frighten Americans, though he said a planned
attack could be "anywhere".
"Americans should live their lives... we just
want them to be aware," Representative
Ruppersberger said.
Meanwhile, officials in Yemen have released
the names of 25 al-Qaeda suspects, saying
they had been planning attacks targeting
"foreign offices and organisations and Yemeni
installations" in the capital of Sanaa and other
cities across the country.
There was also increased security at
government buildings and checkpoints in
Yemen on Monday.
AQAP, the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda, has also
been blamed for the foiled Christmas Day
2009 effort to bomb an airliner over Detroit
and explosives-laden parcels that were
intercepted the following year aboard cargo
flights.
Seven suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed
in two US drone air strikes in southern Yemen
in June, officials say.