US Embassy in Bin Laden Homeland Attacked

Above: Yemeni soldiers in a checkpoint near the embassy

The US embassy in Sanaa, Yemen was attacked on Tuesday; unfortunately the three mortar rounds hit the nearby school instead of the mission.

13 girls and 3 guards were injured in the mortar attack. Of the 13 students, 3 are in critical condition as of the moment. One guard who was patrolling at the back of the embassy was immediately killed.

Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in a statement to the press that the perpetrators are “terrorists.” He offered a hefty reward for any information leading to their capture.

“This ugly terrorist criminal act contradicts the refined teachings of the Islamic religion,” he added. “Terrorist and criminals will not escape punishment …”

US State Department spokeswoman Julie Reside said that, “Our conversations in Yemen have led us to the conclusion that the attack was directed at our embassy.” Although this may have been so, no US personnel or citizen were reported to have been harmed in the explosion.

Yemen is the ancestral home of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Most Western countries consider Yemen as a haven for Islamic militants. But even so, after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, Yemen joined the US in its war on terrorism. This support for the West had triggered even more militants from their country to surface. Most of the time, they target foreign tourists, oil installations and US naval ships.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in October of 2000 that killed 17 US sailors on the USS Cole, a destroyer that was docked in the southern port of Aden.

In December of 2002, 3 US doctors were killed while another was seriously wounded in an attack by an extremist at a Baptist hospital in Jibla, located just south of Sanaa City.

Just last year, a soldier opened fire on oil workers of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation (US owned). The attack killed one worker and wounded six others, including the American supervisor at the installation.

Just this last January 19, two Belgian tourists (both female) were among four people killed in an attack by suspected al-Qaeda gunmen. Four other Belgians were wounded in the attack. The gunmen opened fire on the bus that the tourists were on. It happened in the eastern province of Hadramut.

In a separate attack, at least five Yemeni soldiers were injured after a bomb went off at a local government compound in the southern province of Abyan. The officials who were investigating the scene said it is possible that Islamic militants were behind the attack.

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