SANAA, Yemen, March 18 (UPI) -- Yemen's Interior Ministry says it has strengthened security at the country's main oil installations and tanker terminals amid warnings of al-Qaida attacks against energy industry targets.
The announcement Wednesday was the latest in a series of alerts about terrorist threats against the global energy industry in the Middle East and Far East over the last few weeks. It is not clear whether these are linked or are part of a new strategy by al-Qaida to attack energy targets but they fit in with renewed calls by al-Qaida Central, the leadership cadre holed up in Pakistan, for an economic jihad against the West.
In a March 7 videotape issued by al-Qaida's media arm, as-Sahab, Adam Gadahn, the movement's U.S.-born spokesman, called on jihadists to "further undermine the West's already struggling economies."
This echoes calls by Osama bin Laden, who long advocated attacks on the energy industry.
The alert in Yemen follows a March 8 warning by Singapore's navy that militants planned to attack tankers in the choke point Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The 600-mile waterway, the shortest route between the oil-rich Gulf and Pacific, is a vital energy artery to Asia.
A month earlier, Said al-Shihri, deputy leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the jihadist group based in Yemen, called on jihadists in Somalia, across the Gulf of Aden, to join his fighters and take control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. That waterway, north of the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, links the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi says it is unlikely the jihadists could totally control the strait but acknowledged that they could "threaten ships by attacking them with missiles or capturing them in international waters like the pirates of Somalia."
They could also use seaborne suicide bombers, as they did in attacking the American destroyer USS Cole in Aden harbor in southern Yemen Oct. 12, 2000, or the Asia-bound French supertanker Limburg in the Gulf of Aden Oct. 6, 2002.
AQAP, formed by the 2009 merger of Yemeni and Saudi jihadists, has become a potent force in recent months and clearly has the organizational capabilities to engage in maritime attacks.
However, the jihadists in Yemen have not shown any inclination to do so since the November 2002 capture in the United Arab Emirates of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent who allegedly masterminded the Cole and Limburg attacks.
The U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor, noted that while the plan outlined by al-Shihri is "not a very plausible strategy, the statement does reflect an al-Qaida interest in targeting strategic waterways."
The al-Shabeb jihadists fighting in Somalia haven't engaged in maritime operations, although they may have links with pirates plaguing the Gulf of Aden.
The reported arrival of a seasoned al-Qaida operative, Fazul Andullah Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa, to head al-Shabeb could indicate that major operations are being planned.
The Strait of Malacca is of immense strategic importance to global energy supply and its vulnerability is a major concern of regional governments.
The heavily congested waterway is heavily patrolled by the navies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to guard against pirates who infest the waters. Terrorists haven't struck there but concerns about security were heightened this month when Indonesian authorities disclosed the existence of a militant Islamist group in Aceh, the northernmost province of Sumatra that overlooks the strait.
This group, calling itself al-Qaida in Aceh, is believed to be linked to the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya, the main jihadist group in Southeast Asia. It also has links with Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist outfit in the Philippines tied to al-Qaida.
JI has suffered setbacks in recent months after Indonesia's crack counter-terrorism force, the U.S.-trained Detachment 88, killed several of its leaders.
But the appearance of jihadists in Aceh, a bastion of conservative Islam in the world's most populous Muslim nation, so soon after Singapore's warning has raised the possibility that Indonesian militants are using the region to train for maritime operations.
Abu Sayyaf has also become more active in recent months. It has bombed several inter-island ferries over the years and has periodically threatened to attack larger vessels.
