US Embassy in Yemen hit by car bombs, Indian among 16 dead

The US State Department said the attack killed six attackers and four bystanders, while the rest were Yemeni security forces. All the dead were Yemeni, with the exception one Indian woman, who was walking past when the attack happened, the official added.

Twenty-six-year-old Rani Krishnan Nair, a trainee nurse at a private hospital in Sanaa, was on her way to hospital when she was caught in the cross-fire that followed the bombing outside the heavily fortified embassy, said an Indian embassy official in Sanaa. “She was hit by a bullet and died on the spot,” he added.

A Keralite by birth but born in Iran, Nair came to Sanaa in May this year. Her mother is also a nurse at a hospital in the Yemeni capital, the embassy official said. “We are in touch with the family,” he added.

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

“We, the organisation of Islamic Jihad in Yemen declare our responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sanaa,” a statement read on Wednesday.

“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.”

The US State Department said in a statement: “Today’s events demonstrate that terrorist criminals will not hesitate to kill innocent citizens and those charged with protecting them in pursuit of their agenda of terror”.

“The embassy is working closely with senior Yemeni Government officials to investigate this incident,” it said.

The Yemeni Interior Ministry official said the suicide attackers had tried to break through the heavily guarded gates of the US embassy with their cars, but had failed.

The official said the attack had not done serious damage to the embassy and that none of the embassy staff were hurt. A reporter said ambulance cars rushed to the area after the blasts and that hundreds of heavily armed security forces were deployed around the compound. Police kept reporters...