Non-Essential staff at the American Embassy in Yemen has been ordered by the United States State Department to evacuate because of the continued potential threat of terrorist attacks and civil unrest on Tuesday.

In a statement made on Tuesday, the State Department urged all US citizens to depart from that country because of the “extremely high” potential for attacks and unrest. Britain has already temporarily withdrawn all staff from its Embassy in Yemen due to the same security concerns.

It was reported by media earlier that intercepted communications between Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Sawahri and terrorist groups in Yemen prompted the closure of US diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula.

After a day-long closure that began this weekend, some embassies were allowed to re-open on Monday. Re-opened embassies include facilities in Algiers, Baghdad, Dhaka, and Kabul. 19 other embassies in the region will remain closed “out of an abundance of caution” according to the State Department.

According to lawmakers in Washington, these current threats are the most specific seen since September 11, 2001.

New York Congressman Peter King call this most recent alert “a wake-up call.” In a statement King said, “Al Qaeda is in many ways stronger than it was before 9/11 because it’s mutated and it’s spread and came out of some different directions. And Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is probably the most deadly of all the Al Qaeda affiliates.”

Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told ABC’s ” This Week” that Al Qaeda’s “operatives are in place.” He said then that the US knows this “because we’ve received information that high-level people from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are talking about a major attack and these are people in the high-level.”

Ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Saxby Chambliss said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” “whether they’re going to be suicide deaths that are used or whether they’re planning on vehicle borne bombs being carried into the area, we don’t know.”

Yemeni security officials, meanwhile announced a suspected US drone strike in their country has killed four alleged Al Qaeda members including an Al Qaeda leader. The drone attack was carried out in Marib province. That area in central Yemen is known to host jihadists.According to reports several missiles were launched at a vehicle in the Wadi Abeedah district of Marib province today. Drones also struck a nearby compound. this is the fourth drone attack in the last 10 days.

After a seven week pause in drone attacks, on July 27th, a strike killed six Al Qaeda fighters in the Al Mahfad area. Then on July 30, US drones killed an additional three Al Qaeda fighters and a Saudi operative in a strike in the Shabwa province. That strike is also reported to have killed a mid-level Al Qaeda commander. Then, on August 1 five Al Qaeda members in the eastern province of Hadramout were killed in a drone strike.