By NNN-KUNA,
Washington : A bomb attack at the US embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, was a “vicious attempt” to breach the security of the embassy, but it did not succeed, said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
“The embassy security upgrades that we have been putting in place over the past seven, eight years were, during this attack, effective in stopping the attack, along with the response of the Yemeni forces as well as the response of our American embassy personnel,” McCormack said during a department briefing Wednesday.
McCormack was unable to specify the number killed, but said the current count was one US embassy guard, a Foreign Service national, a Yemeni national and several Yemeni security forces. Reports from the scene said 10 militants died in the attack.
The embassy is closed, and all US personnel there are safe and accounted for, McCormack said.
Two vehicle-borne bombs were part of “a sophisticated attack involving vehicle devices as well as personnel on foot,” McCormack said. The first vehicle bomb exploded near the embassy guard post, and several minutes later a second vehicle blew up near a pedestrian entrance to the embassy, McCormack said.
“In between the first and the second explosions, we observed attackers on foot taking positions in the area,” McCormack said. An initial assessment showed the attackers intended to try to breach a wall in the embassy compound, then enter the facility through the breach. But they were unsuccessful, he said.
The event bears all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack, McCormack said, but the investigation is ongoing.
There has been an ongoing problem with violent extremists and terrorists in Yemen, and the Yemeni government is aware of the problem, McCormack said. “We work very closely with them,” he added. “They have made a great deal of progress.”