Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Yemen fire rocket toward U.S. Embassy
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Version 0 of 1. SANAA, Yemen — An al-Qaeda splinter group launched a rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa on Saturday, injuring several guards. The group said the attack was in retaliation of a U.S. drone strike in a northern province on Friday. The rocket landed about 650 feet from the heavily fortified embassy, which lies in a compound surrounded by high walls, hitting members of the Yemeni special police force who guard the site. At least two were injured, police said. The attacker fired the rocket from a M72 light anti-tank weapon from a car before speeding away, a police source told Reuters. The U.S. Embassy has been a frequent target of attack. The compound was stormed in 2012 by demonstrators angry at a film made in the United States which they saw as blasphemous. And in May, the embassy said armed individuals had attempted to kidnap two of its officers at a small commercial business in Sanaa. Several hours after Saturday’s attack, Ansar al-Sharia, an affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said on its Twitter account it had targeted the embassy with a rocket, injuring several guards and damaging a vehicle. The group said the attack was revenge for a drone strike on Friday that had seriously wounded children in the northern al Jawf province. Tribal sources confirmed that a drone strike killed two al-Qaeda members and wounded two more in al Jawf on Friday, and that there were reports of some children having been wounded. The United States regularly uses drones to attack Islamist militants in countries such as Yemen as part of a strategy to combat al-Qaeda militants without committing troops on the ground. Washington acknowledges using drones in Yemen but does not comment publicly on the practice. Al-Qaeda in Yemen, including AQAP and its affiliates, are among the most active wings of the network founded by Osama bin Laden. Saturday’s attack came a day after the United States told its citizens to leave Yemen and said it was reducing the number of U.S. government staff there due to political unrest and fears of a possible military escalation. Recent weeks have seen regular clashes between Shiite Houthi rebels and government forces in Sanaa. The Houthi, who overran much of the capital last week, signed a security deal on Saturday that stipulates disarmament and withdrawal from areas they have seized in recent months. The deal is part of a comprehensive agreement brokered by the United Nations. The Houthi’s political rivals, the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islah party, and other parties signed as well. It remains to be seen whether the Houthi will abide by the deal. Earlier on Saturday, Houthi rebels attacked the home of Yemen’s intelligence chief in Sanaa, in a sign of the fragility of the power-sharing accord. The takeover of the capital has given the Houthis unprecedented political power in Yemen, a U.S.-allied country whose political, tribal and sectarian unrest poses risks to the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia next door. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has said Yemen may be heading for civil war. |