Officials said the Al Qaida strike began with a suicide car bombing
outside the U.S. embassy. At least six attackers then stormed the concrete
checkpoints that surround the embassy compound.
"This was a highly sophisticated attack that gauged the responses of
Yemeni security forces," the official said.
Yemeni security guards and U.S. Marines fought the Al Qaida squad for at
least 10 minutes. Officials said six fighters and six Yemeni guards were
killed and another four were civilians who died in the crossfire. They said
the embassy was damaged and that an FBI team was sent to Yemen for an
investigation.
"There's an ongoing issue with Al Qaida violent extremists and terrorism
in Yemen," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The Al Qaida attack appeared to take the U.S. embassy by surprise. In
August 2008, the State Department ordered the return of non-essential
personnel and family members in wake of the arrest of leaders of the Al
Qaida network in Yemen.
"Have they [Yemen] done a lot in the past?" McCormack asked. "Yes. Could
they do more? Yes, absolutely. We want to work with them to build up their
capabilities at this point."
Accounts of the latest attack varied. The Yemeni Interior Ministry said
Al Qaida employed two car bombs, one of which penetrated the first ring of
concrete blocks. Later, officials said 25 suspects were arrested.
"Two booby-trapped cars tried to crash through the security cordon
thrown around the U.S. embassy," an Interior Ministry official told the
official Yemeni news agency, Saba. "But security guards forced the attackers
to detonate their cars far from the building, leading to the death of the
six attackers, one of whom wore an explosives belt."
The Al Qaida force was divided into those who assaulted the embassy and
those directed to block the arrival of Yemeni security reinforcements. Some
of the injured Yemenis were struck by fire from snipers, dressed as
soldiers, across the street from the embassy.
U.S. embassy sources said only one car exploded and that Al Qaida fired
RPGs into the embassy compound. The sources said the embassy would remain
open despite the attack.
"A number of explosions occurred in the vicinity of the embassy's main
gate and there were several secondary explosions," the U.S. embassy, which
did not elaborate, said. "A number of Yemeni security personnel were killed
and injured, as were several Yemeni citizens waiting to gain entry to the
embassy."
The Al Qaida-aligned group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the
attack. Officials said Islamic Jihad, which has demanded the release of its
members, was part of the Al Qaida network in Yemen.
"We, the organization of Islamic Jihad in Yemen declare our
responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sanaa,"
Jihad said in a statement hours after the attack. "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."
