Al Qaeda plan to 'change face of history' led to U.S. scare - Yemen

SANAA (Reuters) - A vow made in a phone call by the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to carry out an attack that would "change the face of history" lay behind this month's closures of many Western embassies, Yemen's president said.

In the first public disclosure by a government leader of details of the intercepted call that prompted the U.S. alert, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said AQAP head Nasser al-Wuhayshi made the pledge to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri on July 29.