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Last update - 16:32 18/09/2008
U.S.: Strike on Yemen embassy was attempt to breach its walls
By News Agencies
Tags: Al-Jazeera, Terrorism 

WASHINGTON - The United States said Wednesday that a vicious attack on its embassy in the Yemeni capital earlier in the day was a failed attempt to breach the compound's walls.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the embassy's security upgrades, combined with the response of security officials, were effective in stopping attackers armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb.

Officials say sixteen people were killed, including six assailants.
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McCormack said that no Americans were hurt, but that a U.S. embassy guard from Yemen was killed, along with several Yemeni security officials and some terrorists.

The assault bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack, he said.

At least 16 people were reported killed in the car bomb attack outside the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Sanaa, including six attackers.

A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen claimed responsibility for the bombing, which it said was a suicide attack. The group threatened attacks on embassies of other nations, including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

It had threatened in a previous statement Tuesday to launch a series of attacks unless the Yemeni government met its demands for the release of several of its members from jail.

"We, the organization of Islamic Jihad in Yemen declare our responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sanaa," the statement read.

"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."

TV news networks Al-Jazeera of Qatar and Al-Arabiya of Saudi Arabia reported a car bomb explosion outside the embassy and an exchange of gunfire between guards and unidentified assailants. A second car carrying gunmen in police uniforms arrived at the scene soon after the car bomb exploded, they said, adding that the gunmen had immediately begun firing at the embassy's guards.

A fire also broke out in one of the embassy's buildings, the two stations reported.

A medical official said at least seven Yemeni nationals were wounded and taken to the city's Republican hospital. They are residents of a housing compound near the embassy and included children, he said.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said ambulance cars were rushing to the area and that hundreds of heavily armed security forces were deployed around the embassy. Police kept reporters well away from the immediate vicinity of the embassy, he said.

The embassy has repeatedly been the target of attacks. In March, three mortar rounds targeting the American mission crashed into a high school for girls next door, killing a Yemeni security guard and wounding more than a dozen girls.

In 2006, a gunman opened fire outside the embassy but was shot and arrested by Yemeni guards. The gunman, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, claimed he wanted to kill Americans.

In March 2003, two people were fatally shot and dozens more were injured when police clashed with demonstrators trying to storm the embassy when tens of thousands rallied against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Almost exactly one year earlier, a Yemeni man lobbed a sound grenade into the embassy grounds a day after Vice President Dick Cheney made a stop for talks with officials at Sanaa airport. The attacker, who allegedly sought to retaliate against what he called American bias toward Israel, was sentenced to 10 years in prison but the sentence was later reduced to seven years.

Al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen despite government efforts to destroy it. The group was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17 American sailors and an attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later.

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  • Nine killed, including seven Spanish tourists, in suspected Al-Qaida attack in Yemen
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      2.   NO more embassy 12:48  |  Brod 17/09/08
      3.   Islamic Jihad Headquaters Are Based In Syria 14:04  |  Joseph.E 17/09/08
      4.   Arab Muslims 14:12  |  MR 17/09/08
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      6.   9/11 Ain`t Over.9/11 is Spreading.ilsamic & Arab Global Terror 14:25  |  Joseph.E 17/09/08
      7.   Thats is handy for Israel 14:36  |  George Michael 17/09/08
      8.   to indy: And the world community says:depicable crime by muslins 14:45  |  JP 17/09/08
      9.   to Indra: And the world community says:depicable crime by muslins 14:46  |  JP 17/09/08
      10.   #7 George Michael...wow! 15:08  |  DR 17/09/08
      11.   Just muslims celebrating ramadan 16:21  |  Yaacov Sullivan 17/09/08
      12.   different islamic jihad 16:33  |  George 17/09/08
      13.   The couldn`t find a ship to bomb 16:50  |  * BEN JABO 17/09/08
      14.   #5 Idrajaya 17:22  |  Daniela 17/09/08
      15.   #5;indrajaya, where is your outrage at the attackers 17:25  |  DOC HOLLIDAY 17/09/08
      16.   They are using the wrong tactic 17:41  |  lady from USA 17/09/08
      17.   #10 Ben Jabo 18:09  |  Ivor Biggun 17/09/08
      18.   George Michael and speaking with authority 18:21  |  ZISD 17/09/08
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      20.   ivor biggun the only thing you got thats a biggun is your mouth 18:36  |  terrornator 17/09/08
      21.   Passing Out the Candies 19:20  |  Mark of Lewiston 17/09/08
      22.   On George Bush`s Watch 19:26  |  Mark of Lewiston 17/09/08
      23.   A hint towards 19:37  |  Scharker Yid 17/09/08
      24.   Worrying development 21:11  |  Chris Linthwaite 17/09/08
      25.   #1 Rabbi Izzy Lahm 21:13  |  Chris Linthwaite 17/09/08
      26.   #10 DR of Florida 21:16  |  Chris Linthwaite 17/09/08
      27.   Every four years 23:08  |  Mark Lincoln 17/09/08
      28.   Mark of Lewiston - so what? 03:28  |  Mark Lincoln 18/09/08
      29.   The weapon we ignore - Mark of Lewiston 03:33  |  Mark Lincoln 18/09/08
      30.   #24 Linthwaite - The booking agent is waiting 06:16  |  * BEN JABO 18/09/08
      31.   #17 Ivor, are you really nuts? 06:20  |  * BEN JABO 18/09/08
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