tagged w/ US Embassy in Yemen
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The suicide squad that assaulted the U.S. embassy in Yemen in September had links to al-Qaeda and some even had fought in Iraq, a Yemeni security official said Saturday.
The official added that the United Nations has raised its security level in Yemen in response to terrorist threats.
The six Yemeni men who carried out the Sept. 17 attack against the gates of the U.S. embassy were trained at al-Qaeda camps in the southern Yemeni provinces of Hadramut and Marib and three of them had recently returned from Iraq, the official added.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press.
Armed with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles, the attackers drove two cars packed with explosives into the embassy gate and sprayed it with bullets before being killed. Aside from the attackers, 13 others died in the incident, including an 18-year-old American woman of Yemeni origin.
It was the deadliest direct assault on a U.S. Embassy in a decade.
The U.S. counts Yemen as an ally in the war on terrorism. But American officials have long been frustrated over what is seen as a "revolving door" policy toward al-Qaeda militants by President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government.
Yemen has let some convicted militants go free after promising to refrain from violence.
While U.N. officials would not confirm whether there have been any threats against them, on Oct. 18 the international organization increased its security level to "phase 3," which means family members and essential staff have to leave the country.
"The U.N. Secretary General has temporarily increased the security level to phase 3 purely as an internal precautionary measure," resident coordinator Pratibha Mehta said in a statement. "U.N. essential staff will remain and we will continue to implement all UN programs and operations."
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu-Bakr al-Qirbi has held a meeting with western ambassadors to assure them that Yemeni authorities have taken necessary security measures to secure their missions in the country, said a ministry statement.
Yemeni Interior Minister Mouthar al-Masri also announced that authorities have uncovered a factory for building car bombs, without giving the location of the factory.
For years, the government has let some al-Qaeda figures and other Islamic extremists go free in political deals hoping to keep them quiet.
But the policy of compromise may be falling apart with the return of younger radicals who fought alongside al-Qaeda in Iraq, but left after the group was heavily squeezed by the U.S. military and Sunni tribes there.
Yemen has seen an upswing of attacks that security officials say likely involved Iraq veterans. In July 2007, for example, a suicide bomber detonated his car among tourists at an ancient temple in central Yemen, killing seven Spaniards and two Yemenis. There have also been reported attacks on Yemen's large Muslim minority sects, the Zaydis and Shiites, seen as heretics by Sunni extremists.The suicide squad that assaulted the U.S. embassy in Yemen in September had links to... more
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I can't help but wonder if the Yemen embassy and Islamabad Marriott hotel attacks are part of this next wave hinted at here by Al-Qaeda in their video?
Story excerpt:
"In another segment, the personal adviser to Taliban leader Mullah Omar says al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well. Al Qaeda leaders featured on the video promise more violence against their enemies.
"We inform the forces of the Cross and their apostate agents that the Mujahedeen's policy in the coming stage, God permitting, is going to be more major, large-scale attacks like the Kandahar prison operation, the Nuristan raid, the Sarobi ambush and Khost airport operation in which approximately 50 Americans and 100 apostates were killed and four helicopters were hit and destroyed," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid says."
More on the Islamabad Marriott attacks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/world/asia/21islamabad.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
More on the Yemen embassy attacks:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jXGTycAi2JhWyC20JqR2uuQw77Yg
I can't help but wonder if the Yemen embassy and Islamabad Marriott hotel attacks... more
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It has emerged that a US student, Eighteen-year-old Susan El-Baneh, was among the dead in the recent embassy bombing in Yemen. So now we should care?It has emerged that a US student, Eighteen-year-old Susan El-Baneh, was among the dead... more
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rwylie
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added this
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3 years ago
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This young woman named Susan El-Baneh, 18 and her husband were among those killed in the terrorist attack in the U.S embassy in Yemen. They were only married for three weeks.
She was a senior in high school and a native of New York. She went to Yemen to help bring her new husband back to the U.S.
For more on this story click on the link. This young woman named Susan El-Baneh, 18 and her husband were among those killed in... more
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"At least 25 militants with suspected links to al-Qaida have been arrested in connection with Wednesday's deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital, a senior security official said on Thursday.
The Yemeni official said the 25 have been rounded up from various parts of Yemen over the past 24 hours and were being questioned by Yemeni and U.S. investigators. "
"At least 25 militants with suspected links to al-Qaida have been arrested in... more
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