Yemen has stepped up security at oil facilities and sea ports to prevent attacks by al-Qaeda after a series of government strikes in the Arab country targeting the terrorist network, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday, dpa reported.
Coastguard and security forces in six coastal provinces "will beef up security procedures of oil installations and port facilities as well as oil shipping lines," the ministry said in a statement.
It said the action is meant to prevent "potential terrorist acts that could be carried out by terrorist elements of al-Qaeda organization in revenge for the strong strikes unleashed by security forces against dens of terrorism."
Yemen has stepped up operations against al-Qaeda in the country since December, after the group's local wing claimed responsibility for the failed plot to blow up a US passenger jet as it prepared to land on December 25 in Detroit.
The government carried out a series of airstrikes on suspected al- Qaeda locations since December in the southern provinces of Shabwa and Abyan.
On Sunday, at least two members of al-Qaeda were killed in a Yemeni Air Force strike on a remote village in the south of the country.