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| A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator UAV assigned to the California Air National Guard's 163rd Reconnaissance Wing flies near the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California, on January 7, 2012. |
Security sources told CNN
about the strikes but didn't offer additional details. A Yemeni
official said four drone strikes have been carried out in the past 10
days.
None of those killed on Tuesday were among the 25 names on the country's most-wanted list, security officials said.
It is unclear whether the
strikes were related to the added security alert in the country after
U.S. officials intercepted a message from al Qaeda leader Ayman
al-Zawahiri to operatives in Yemen telling them to "do something." The
message was sent to Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula, the terror group's Yemeni affiliate. U.S.
intelligence believes al-Wuhayshi has recently been appointed the
overall terror organization's No. 2 leader.
Also Tuesday, the State
Department urged Americans in Yemen to leave immediately, citing
terrorist activities and civil unrest. All non-emergency U.S. government
personnel were also told to leave.
Two U.S. military transport aircraft landed in Yemen on Tuesday to evacuate American citizens.
"In response to a request
from the U.S. State Department, early this morning the U.S. Air Force
transported personnel out of Sana'a, Yemen, as part of a reduction in
emergency personnel," Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a
statement.
Little also said, "The
U.S. Department of Defense continues to have personnel on the ground in
Yemen to support the U.S. State Department and monitor the security
situation."
The UK Foreign Office
also announced it had temporarily withdrawn all staff from the British
embassy and would keep the facility shut until employees are able to
return.
Washington takes precautions
Acting on the
intelligence information, the United States heightened its security
stance, issuing a worldwide travel alert and closing a number of
embassies and consulates over large areas of the Middle East and Africa
this week.
The State Department
said the substantial security steps reflect an "abundance of caution"
over intelligence information that indicated final planning by al Qaeda
in Yemen for possible terrorist attacks on Western targets to coincide
with the end of Ramadan this week.
Three sources told CNN
that the United States has information that members of al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula are in the final stages of planning for an unspecified
attack. Recent jailbreaks in Pakistan, Iraq and Libya all have the
fingerprints of al Qaeda operations.
On Monday, White House
spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that U.S. anti-terrorism efforts had
decimated al Qaeda's global leadership and greatly diminished its core
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying the threat had "shifted to some of
these affiliates, in particular AQAP."
Separately, American
special forces units overseas have been on alert for the past several
days awaiting a mission to attack potential al Qaeda targets if those
behind the most recent terror threats against U.S. interests can be
identified, a senior Obama administration official told CNN.
The official declined to
identify the units or their locations because of the sensitive nature
of the information. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel put the units on alert
last week, the official said.
CNN's Barbara Starr and Hakim Almasmari contributed to this report
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