The U.S. government on Tuesday raised its terror alert status to the second-highest level, citing the renewed risk of attacks on American soil in light of suicide bombings in Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
The decision to raise the alert level to “high” or “orange” from “elevated” or “yellow” on the color-coded scale was made by top national security officials after a review of recent intelligence. “This change is based upon the recent terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, also in conjunction with intelligence reports concerning anti-U.S. terrorist groups’ intentions,” said Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson. “The United States’ intelligence community believes that terrorists continue to plan attacks against targets in the United States, and for this reason the alert level has been raised,” he told reporters. The FBI said earlier that the suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco last week in which a total of 75 people were killed could herald attempts to carry out an attack on the United States, though it said it had no specific threat information. Full Story