US embassy hit in Yemen

(Reuters)

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.