From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Sep 17 2008 - 09:21:42 EDT
*U.S. Embassy in Yemen Attacked
*
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 17, 2008; 7:36 AM
SANAA, Yemen, Sept. 17 -- Attackers exploded a vehicle bomb outside the main
gate of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen on Wednesday in what appeared to be a
well-coordinated assault that triggered more explosions and heavy gunfire
around the compound.
Yemen's official Saba news agency said 16 people died in the incident,
including six Yemeni soldiers, four civilians and six attackers. One of the
civilians was an Indian woman at the embassy on business.
There were no immediate reports of American casualties. The embassy is
located in the center of Sanaa, Yemen's capital, but the building is set far
back from an outer security wall.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda has maintained a
steady presence here, especially as fighters from the militant group return
from Iraq<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/iraq.html?nav=el>
.
The first explosion, at 9:15 a.m., resounded for miles and sent a plume of
black smoke over the city.
"It shook everything in my home," said Saddam Hussein, a Yemen man living
about 200 yards from the embassy. "One big explosion, then smaller
explosions, and gunfire."
The vehicle bomb exploded at the main gate, said embassy spokesman Ryan
Gliha. There did not appear to be any major damage to the embassy building,
Gliha said.
U.S. officials still were trying to determine the nature of several
explosions that followed the vehicle bomb, Gliha said. Hussein and other
nearby residents said the secondary blasts sounded much smaller, like
grenades.
The intermittent explosions and heavy gunfire continued for about 10 minutes
after the first blast, as scores of Yemeni forces rushed to the scene.
A half-hour after the blast, intermittent gunfire still crackled.
Helicopters circled the embassy. Ambulances painted in green camouflage
carried injured to the city's military hospital.
The Yemen embassy has been the target of numerous attacks since 2002. In the
most recent assault, three mortar rounds hit a nearby school for girls in
March, killing a security guard and injuring about 20 girls and others.
Other attacks include one in 2006, when a man armed with an automatic weapon
opened fire outside the embassy, saying he wanted to kill Americans.
Security forces shot him and captured him, without other injuries.
Yemen was also the scene in 2000 of the deadly suicide attack against the
USS Cole.
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