Attack at US Embassy in Yemen

A deadly suicide and rocket attack hit the high-security US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday killing at least 16 people including an Indian woman, a strike termed by the White House a reminder of the danger from “violent extremists” both at home and abroad.

As many as five explosions rocked the embassy followed by a fierce fire-fight outside the embassy in the capital city of Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

A suicide bomber smashed his explosives-laden car at the entrance of the embassy which also came under rocket attacks, reports reaching here said.

A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen claimed the responsibility for the strike, which came six months after one of the US embassy’s residential compounds came under a rocket attack, and warned of similar strikes against the British, Saudi and United Arab Emirates missions in Sanaa.

“We will pursue the series of explosions according to our pre-established plan and (target) other embassies,” the militant group was quoted as saying.

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