Yemen arrests 30 after US embassy attack

Two suicide car bombs set off a series of explosions outside the embassy compound on Wednesday, killing 16 people including six attackers. The dead were all Yemeni apart from an Indian woman who was walking past when the attack happened. The security authorities want to investigate whether the suspects are linked to Wednesday’s attack, the security source said.

A US embassy spokesman told Reuters that Washington would send a number of teams to Yemen to help the authorities with their investigations.

The US State Department said on Wednesday the bombings bore all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack but the United States had not yet concluded who was to blame.

It threatened attacks on other embassies, including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, unless Yemen freed several jailed members.

“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 group said on Wednesday. The US embassy spokesman said the embassy would stay open after Al Jazeera television said it had closed after the attack.