In hyping the “foiled” terror plot in the nation’s southeast, Yemeni government officials have claimed major boosts to security nationwide, but in the capital city of Sanaa things really aren’t so different.
The US embassy remains closed, and there is an official “terror watch” that continues apace, but the most visible sign is the constant US surveillance planes flying overhead.
Reports from the ground in Sanaa suggest no real changes though, as locals celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday as usual and thoughts of imminent terrorist attacks of the sort that shuttered the embassy seemed a world away.
It isn’t surprising, of course, as Sanaa is far from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) operations, and while locals in Shabwa and Abyan Provinces had to duck US drone strikes for the last two weeks, the escalation hasn’t impacted the country’s northwest yet.