Australia kept its embassies in the Muslim world open on Sunday.  But the US is extending the closure of its diplomatic outposts through week’s end, based mostly on fears of a post-Ramadan terror attack.

The US State Department says the extended closures were “out of an abundance of caution”, but also because many of them were going to be closed anyway for much of the period because of the Eid holiday, which comes at the end of the Ramadan holy month.

The embassy closures and US global travel alert came after the US developed information that al Qaeda in Yemen was planning some sort of attack after Ramadan, possibly against an embassy.

The UK Foreign Office is advising all British nationals to leave Yemen, warning of “a very high threat of kidnap from armed tribes, criminals and terrorists”.

Australia is assessing security at its embassies and carrying on