From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Wed Sep 17 2008 - 10:50:00 EDT
16 dead in US embassy attack in Yemen
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Islamist militants have attacked the US embassy in the Yemeni capital
Sanaa with a car bomb and rockets, causing "multiple casualties," an
embassy spokesman said.
Sixteen people, including six soldiers, six militants and four
bystanders, were killed in the twin car bombing, the interior ministry
said.
A US embassy spokesman, Ryan Gliha, says no embassy staff have been
hurt.
"Most of us that were here during that time were inside did not have any
visual response or any visual information from the attack however we all
felt the primary explosion and secondary explosions," he said.
"They did seem to shake the ground."
Witnesses said gunmen raked the Yemeni police detachment outside the
heavily fortified embassy compound before a suicide bomber blew up a car
right by the entrance, setting off a fire.
They spoke of a series of explosions as the embassy came under rocket as
well as small arms fire, in what is the second attack on the US mission
this year.
"There were multiple casualties resulting from this attack," embassy
spokesman Mr Gliha told CNN television.
He said several explosions had followed a "primary explosion" but he
could not give any information about the nature of the secondary blasts.
A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen said in a statement that
it carried out the attack and threatened similar strikes against the
British, Saudi and United Arab Emirates missions in the Yemeni capital.
Briton Trev Mason told CNN from Sanaa that he heard at least three big
explosions around the embassy from his nearby residential compound.
"We heard the sounds of a heavy gunbattle going on. I looked out of my
window and we saw the first explosion going off, a massive fireball very
close to the US embassy," he said.
"The gunbattle went on for a further 10 to 15 minutes followed by two
further loud explosions.
"We've heard there's lots of casualties."
Al Qaeda militants attacked the American embassy earlier this year,
prompting the US Government to pull all non-essential diplomatic staff
out of the country.
- AFP
A suicide bomber blew up a car near the embassy's entrance. (Reuters)
<http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200809/r293788_1260039.jpg>
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