Workers used forklift trucks and blowtorches Monday to remove dozens of cement-filled yellow drums and other barriers that have been in front of the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar’s capital since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.

The government did not announce a reason for clearing the security barriers or say whether the street in front of the downtown embassy building would be reopened to traffic. The removal began Sunday.

A U.S. Embassy official, contacted by phone from neighboring Thailand, said Monday that the mission had raised its concerns about the changes with the highest levels of Myanmar’s government Monday, and confirmed that three of the five lanes in front of the embassy that had been closed were now open to traffic.

Myanmar’s military government is notoriously secretive, and what news it chooses to release generally comes in official announcements in the state-controlled media. When armed police were removed from diplomatic premises last month, the Foreign Ministry held a briefing for diplomats, but failed to explain the move.

Mutual hostility between Yangon and Washington – a top critic of the junta because of its poor human rights record and failure to restore democracy – also limits dialogue between the two countries.

The embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity that is customary among U.S. diplomats in Myanmar, said there were no plans to close the embassy, but that its staff were reviewing the security situation.

With dozens of police and security officials looking on, workers used blowtorches to break up the drums before taking them away on fork lifts.

Security was boosted at the U.S. and British Embassies in Yangon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Armed police and police cars were stationed at the two embassies, and busy Merchant Street – where the U.S. Embassy is located – was sealed off from traffic with barbed-wire barricades and heavy drums.