US officials suspected that Yemen had a secret cache of shoulder-fired missiles that could have threatened US forces if it fell in the wrong hands, new cables released by WikiLeaks said.

An embassy cable marked “secret” and dated 4th August 2009 says an informant whose name has been redacted told US political officers that Yemen’s defence ministry “does indeed have MANPADS, but would never speak of them because they are considered a state secret.”

While Yemen “realises their MANPADS are of little military value, they consider them better than nothing and would turn them over for destruction only if they were able to get a modern air defence system in return.”

Man Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) are shoulder-fired missiles designed to down aircraft, and were most famously used by Afghan fighters in the 1980s to shoot down helicopters and eventually drive out Soviet forces.

The cable was published by The New York Times Friday as part of the release of over 250,000 State Department memos, most from the last three years, by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

The National Security Bureau (NSB), a Yemeni intelligence agency close to the United States, was convinced the stocks existed, according to the Times.

But one of the US diplomats who drafted the memo was not so sure, writing: “It is hard to know what to believe regarding the presence or absence of MoD (Ministry of Defence) MANPADS.”

In the end, the US diplomats decided to continue negotiating with the NSB over the destruction of the MANPADS, since the defence ministry “appears unwilling to discuss the issue with (US) officials directly.”

The cable noted that since 2004 the two governments had “dramatically reduced” the availability of such weapons on the black market in Yemen, a deeply tribal country where the government’s power is limited.

Yemen is currently battling Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s global network that has engineered at least two failed attacks on the United States in the last year.

Shoulder-fired missiles have already been used by Al-Qaeda in Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 2001 and 2002, according to the cable.

Libya ‘risked nuclear disaster after UN slight’: WikiLeaks

Libyan leader Mommar Gadhafi was prepared to leave highly enriched uranium potentially unprotected and at risk of hijack in a fit of pique aimed at the UN, US cables revealed by WikiLeaks showed.

British newspaper The Guardian said the leaked secret diplomatic cables showed that seven metal casks sealed only for transport, not for storage, were left at a Libyan nuclear facility with a single armed guard in November 2009.

Scientists warned that the 5.2 kilogrammes of uranium in the casks was highly radioactive and rapidly heating up, making it liable to crack the containers and leak into the atmosphere.

The New York Times, which also published the cables, said the US embassy in Tripoli reported: “If the enriched uranium is not removed from the casks within three months, its rising temperature could cause the casks to crack and to release radioactive nuclear material.”

US and Russian diplomats frantically lobbied Libyan officials to allow a Russian plane, which had been due to arrive at the Tajoura facility to pick up the casks, to land, but clearance was refused.

The incident came after Gadhafi suddenly reneged on a promise to dispose of the weapons-grade uranium, apparently initially because of a perceived slight when he was barred from pitching a tent outside UN headquarters in New York.

The material had originally formed part of Libya’s nuclear weapons plans, which it agreed to abandon in 2003 under pressure from the West.

Anxious US and Russian officials urged the Libyans to ensure the research centre’s loading crane was put out of operation to prevent any intruders from moving the casks, each weighing five tonnes, the New York Times reported.

Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi told the US ambassador that Libya had refused to keep its promise to ship its final enriched uranium stockpile because it was “fed up” with the slow pace of relations with Washington, the cables say.

US and Russian officials eventually managed to placate Mommar Gadhafi and a giant Russian Antonov transport plane was allowed to land at the facility.

On 21st December, it took off with the uranium on board.

WikiLeaks came under intense pressure Friday as its founder Julian Assange dealt with a new arrest warrant and death threats, while the website hopped around the globe trying to evade efforts to shut it down.