Filipinos in Yemen have been assured of their safety by the government in the wake of the fightings there between Yemeni troops and insurgents. “(President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) has a standing order through the (Department of Foreign Affairs) to ensure the safety and security of Filipinos in the said country,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his weekly briefing in Malaca?ang. The government's actions would be similar to those taken during the Gulf War in the 1990s, Ermita said. Last week, the United States and the United Kingdom closed their embassies in Yemen for two days following the growing threat being posed by Al-Qaeda there. The Yemeni government has sent thousand of troops this week to remote provinces where Al-Qaeda has set up strongholds. The Al-Qaeda terrorist group has been blamed for at least two attacks on American presence in Yemen, one in 2000 and the other in 2008. In October 2000, 17 American sailors were killed in a suicide bombing attack on the US Navy destroyer USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden. In September 2008, 10 people died when two car bombs exploded outside the US Embassy compound in Sanaa.
