US embassy hit in Yemen
Latest in Middle East
Related articles
On Facebook
From the blogs
Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single
For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...
Top of the posts: Drunken rants, the Western Fail and misogyny pushers
The most read blogs this week, as determined by stats.
Sepp Blatter: Penalty shoot-outs must remain, they’re football’s great leveller
As England supporters, we should scorn at any such deciding factor within football. On so many occas...
Why do some men consider the street as a female meat market?
Pronouncements on sexual inequality in the UK are normally met with an eye roll by my generation. As...
Two suicide car bombs set off a series of explosions outside the heavily fortified US embassy in Yemen today, killing 16 people including six attackers, a Yemeni Interior Ministry official said.
The US State Department said the attack killed several Yemeni security guards as well as civilians waiting to get into the embassy in the capital Sanaa.
Islamic Jihad in Yemen, which is unrelated to the Palestinian group with a similar name, claimed responsibility and threatened attacks on other embassies including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
It had threatened in a previous statement yesterday to launch a series of attacks unless the Yemeni government met its demands for the release of several members from jail.
"We, the organisation of Islamic Jihad in Yemen declare our responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sanaa," a statement read today.
"We will carry out the rest of the series of attacks on the other embassies that were declared previously, until our demands are met by the Yemeni government."
The US State Department said in a statement: "Today's events demonstrate that terrorist criminals will not hesitate to kill innocent citizens and those charged with protecting them in pursuit of their agenda of terror".
"The embassy is working closely with senior Yemeni government officials to investigate this incident," it said.
The Yemeni Interior Ministry official said the suicide attackers had tried to break through the heavily guarded gates of the US embassy with their cars but had failed.
The official said the attack had not done serious damage to the embassy and that no American embassy staff were hurt.
Among the dead were six attackers and four bystanders, while the rest were Yemeni security forces. All the dead were Yemeni, with the exception one Indian woman who was walking past when the attack happened, the official added.
Yemen, the ancestral home of al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden, has grappled with a spate of al-Qa'ida attacks this year, including one on the US embassy, another near the Italian mission and others on Western tourists.
An al-Qa'ida-affiliated group claimed responsibility in March for a mortar attack that missed the US embassy but wounded 13 girls at a nearby school.
The United States ordered non-essential staff to leave Yemen in April, a day after an attack on a residential compound.
Islamic Jihad in Yemen has been involved in previous attacks on Western targets in Yemen including a US hospital.
The leader of the group was executed in 1999 for the kidnapping of 16 Western tourists, four of whom died in a botched army attack to free them.
The Yemeni government joined the US-led war against terrorism following the 11 September attacks on US cities in 2001.
It has jailed dozens of militants in connection with bombings of Western targets and clashes with authorities, but is still viewed in the West as a haven for Islamist militants.
The government of the poor Arab country has also been fighting Shi'ite rebels in the northern province of Saada since 2004 and faced protests against unemployment and inflation.
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 3 News in pictures
- 4 Tory chief Warsi failed to declare rent income from flat
- 5 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 6 Osborne to face questions over links to Murdoch
- 7 Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?
- 8 Postgraduate students are being used as 'slave labour'
- 9 Günter Grass attacks Merkel for Athens policy
- 10 Exclusive dispatch: Assad blamed for massacre of the innocents
- 1 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 2 Fat? Really? Olympic hope laughs off official’s jibe – but others aren’t amused
- 3 Leading article: Ten questions for Jeremy Hunt
- 4 Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?
- 5 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 6 Postgraduate students are being used as 'slave labour'
- 7 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 8 Exclusive dispatch: Assad blamed for massacre of the innocents
- 9 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
- 10 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
The secret life of the red carpet
Up and away – how '7 Up' went global


