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WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Sunday announced the extended closure of its 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa to cope with potential terrorist attacks against Western interests.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said these American embassies and consulates will remain closed through Monday to Saturday.
"We've decided to extend the closure of several embassies and consulates including a small number of additional posts," she said in a statement, noting the decision was made "out of an abundance of caution" and on the occasion of the Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan, when Muslims began their "feast of breaking the fast" after the holy month.
The 19 posts are in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antananarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali and Port Louis.
"This is not an indication of a new threat stream, merely an indication of our commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect our employees including local employees and visitors to our facilities," Psaki said.
She added that the U.S. will reopen on Monday for normal operations its missions in Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar el Sharif, Baghdad, Basrah and Erbil.
The State Department announced the closures through the weekend on Thursday, and on Friday it issued a global travel alert warning of possible terrorist attacks "occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula."
"Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August," the alert said.
The White House has held regular interagency meetings in the past few days over the threat, as the Obama administration is still reeling from the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, in which U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
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