RIYADH, Nov 8: The United States shut its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia on Saturday and its close ally Britain declared there was a high threat of terrorist attacks in neighbouring Bahrain and Qatar.

US authorities earlier issued a spate of alerts over Malaysia and Afghanistan, and warned that Al Qaeda may be plotting to use cargo planes to target power plants in the United States.

Warning that guerrillas could be on the verge of carrying out attacks in Saudi Arabia, both Washington and London urged their nationals in the Gulf Arab state to remain vigilant.

“The embassy continues to receive credible information that terrorists in Saudi Arabia have moved from the planning to operational phase of planned attacks in the kingdom,” said a US advisory published late on Friday.

Diplomats estimate there are 35,000 US and up to 30,000 British citizens in Saudi Arabia.

The US embassy in Riyadh, guarded by military vehicles in the city’s high security diplomatic quarter, was closed to the public on Saturday, a working day in the Gulf state.

Diplomats said it would stay shut on Sunday and they would review the situation on a “day by day basis”. US missions in the Saudi coastal cities of Jeddah and Dhahran were also shut.

MALAYSIA-AFGHANISTAN: Meanwhile, in Washington, the State Department issued a public announcement about the safety of US citizens in Malaysia, warning they could fall prey to Southeast Asian terror groups.

The announcement urged extra caution to US citizens in Malaysia’s eastern state of Sabah on Borneo Island, near where the Philippines-based Muslim Abu Sayyaf group kidnapped a group of foreign tourists in 2000.

The warning also noted the threat to Americans in the region from the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, which was blamed for the nightclub bombings last year in Bali, Indonesia, and other attacks on western targets.

“Extremist groups in the region have demonstrated their capability to carry out transnational attacks in locations where Westerners congregate.

Malaysia responded angrily to the safety warning, saying security nationwide is adequate and ruling out fears the announcement would hurt Malaysia’s tourist industry.

Separately, the State Department warned that remnants of the Taliban plan to abduct American journalists in Afghanistan and use them to demand release of Taliban prisoners held by the United States.

“The United States embassy in Kabul has received credible information that Taliban forces are actively searching for American journalists to take hostage for use as leverage for the release of Taliban currently under United States control,” a State Department notice said.

CARGO PLANES: Closer to home, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI late on Friday warned that Al Qaeda operatives may be planning to hijack cargo jets in Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean and use them to attack power plants and other critical infrastructure in the United States.

The alert was based on uncorroborated information from a single informant, according to US media reports. But authorities deemed it serious enough to issue the warning.

US authorities were also preparing to send a similar alert to Saudi Arabia, warning that cargo planes could be used as weapons against targets there, CNN reported.

BRITAIN: Britain said it had no plans at present to shut diplomatic offices in the country. But it said “the threat from terrorism is particularly serious at this time and that terrorists may be in the final phases of planning attacks in the kingdom”.

British embassies in the neighbouring Gulf states of Bahrain and Qatar also warned UK nationals of a high threat of terrorist attacks against Western targets in those countries.

Pro-Western Bahrain, the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, witnessed anti-US protests in the run-up to the US-led war on Iraq which toppled Saddam Hussein, but there have been few attacks against Westerners in the island state.

British Foreign Office advice for the region has also been revised to highlight general security and terrorist threats, including possible use of chemical and biological substances.—Reuters/AFP