SANAA: Yemeni authorities have rounded up 25 suspects over a deadly attack on the US Embassy in Sanaa claimed by an Al-Qaeda linked group.
The Organization of Islamic Jihad said it was behind Wednesday’s car bombing and rocket attack on the highly fortified US mission that killed six soldiers, six assailants and four others, including an American and her Yemeni husband.
It said it was demanding the release of militants being held by the Yemeni authorities, which have been battling a wave of attacks by Al-Qaeda extremists for a decade.
A statement signed by the self-proclaimed leader of the group, Abu Ghaith Al-Yamani, said it would continue attacks “against Western interests,” Yemeni public figures and the Saudi Embassy in the capital. It also called for the closure of the US and British missions in Yemen.
Yemeni security sources said special counterterrorism forces had been put in charge of defending the US Embassy.
The US Embassy bombing was the second strike on the compound in six months, and the latest in a spate of attacks against Western interests and oil installations in the country.
The US victim in Wednesday’s attack was identified as Susan El-Baneh, from Buffalo, New York, the State Department said in a statement read out by deputy spokesman Robert Wood.
“This attack is a reminder that we are at war with extremists, who would murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives,” US President George W. Bush said.
