Sanaa tightens security during Ramadan

Yemen's Interior Ministry has tightened security measures in Sanaa during Ramadan to safeguard the city against potential acts of terrorism.

These measures "aim to protect the community from any terrorist act or attack that threatens its stability", said Col. Mohammed Hezam, deputy director general of the ministry’s General Administration of Moral Guidance.

In Sanaa and elsewhere in the country, there have been threats of attacks using car bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), he told Al-Shorfa.

On June 11th, Ibb province security director Mohammed al-Shami was wounded and his driver was killed in a motorcycle bomb attack.

Al-Shami had been traveling in his car when a motorcycle parked on the side of the street exploded, local media reported. Several of his security escorts and a number of civilians also were wounded in the attack.

Tightened security procedures

"Checkpoints at the entrances to the capital are tightening their procedures to prevent the entry of car bombs," Hezam said.

Temporary and mobile checkpoints also have been set up throughout Sanaa to clamp down on crime and take by surprise those who attempt to undermine social stability and security, he added.

"All streets and entrances will see their share of these measures, which do not exclude any area, whether in the centre of the capital or on its outskirts," he said.

Traffic police are inspecting vehicles that do not have license plates, he added, as these are typically used by extremist groups to carry out attacks.

The Sanaa security plan plays a key role in preventing terrorist attacks, political analyst Nayef Haidan told Al-Shorfa.

However, he said, it needs to be implemented in conjunction with an awareness campaign that highlights the importance of public co-operation with the security forces and the need to report suspicious people or movement.

Haidan called on security agency commanders and public opinion leaders "to work together to raise social awareness of the serious threat of infiltration into the capital by terrorist elements bent on carrying out terrorist attacks".

It is vital to prevent attacks such as the bombings carried out on the eve of Ramadan last year by the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), which targeted four mosques in Sanaa, killing and wounding dozens, he said.

People can help keep Sanaa safe

The new security measures in Sanaa are being implemented in co-ordination with the popular committees, Haidan said.

"We thank them, for they do not grow weary or tire in protecting citizens and safeguarding the capital," he added.

"The deployment [of security forces] in most neighbourhoods and districts of the capital is helping to curb crime, as are the measures implemented outside the security cordon around the capital and in neighbouring provinces," said political analyst Tariq al-Zuraiqi.

Public co-operation is one of the "positive factors that have contributed to thwarting several terrorist attacks" and has led to the recent arrest of a number of sleeper cells in Sanaa, he told Al-Shorfa.

Extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL carry out their attacks randomly and indiscriminately, he said.

For them, everyone is a target, he said, whether in the mosques, markets or streets, "because [their] ideology is based on the premise that those who do not support them are against them, and are therefore viewed as enemies".

The only aim of these groups is "to kill for the sake of killing", he added.