Blasts heard near U.S. embassy in Yemen: report

[Scurrilous]

Source: Washington Post

<snip>

"Explosions and gunfire were heard on Wednesday near the heavily-fortified U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Arab television stations quoted witnesses as saying.

They gave no more details, but Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has grappled with a spate of al Qaeda attacks this year, including one on the U.S. embassy, another near the Italian mission and others on Western tourists.

An al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed responsibility in March for a mortar attack that missed the U.S. embassy in Sanaa but wounded 13 girls at a nearby school.

The United States ordered non-essential staff to leave Yemen in April, a day after an attack on a residential compound."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/17/AR2008091700240.html

[Wetzelbill]

1. I got another article here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26751142

[imax2268]

2. Here we go...

this isn't good...

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Iran here we go....

[Wetzelbill]

5. oh don't say that

Now you're going to have me worried all night.

You just know McCain is going to milk this for all it's worth. "We are all Yemenitians now!" ugh.

[Chrisnreno]

6. Exactly. Ughhhhh is right! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I know but when the news broke on CNBC

watching the Maddow show

I turned to hubby and said exactly that

Does not mater if the Iranians are behind this or not... just like 9.11 this is the excuse they need

And I have reasons to worry... ready reserve... USN for hubby

Trust me, he did 20, don't need yet another war deployment

[Wetzelbill]

13. that's what I'm afraid of

A ready made excuse to attack Iran. My cousin was in Iraq nearly a year, he got back last spring and is going to Afghanistan soon. I cringe at the thought of him going to Iran because we have reckless fools in power.

[Chrisnreno]

4. Just saw this on the MSNBC website.

Hopefully it isn't that bad. If I remember correctly, wasn't there an incident at a US embassy in Syria recently? If I remember correctly, it was an attempted attack that was thwarted by Syrian security. Am I right on this? Anyway, I hope this incident is nothing more severe than that. Anymore details yet?

[Scurrilous]

7. Official: blasts heard near US Embassy in Yemen

<snip>

"Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard Wednesday morning near the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital and police swiftly cordoned off the area, according to a government security official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, had no more details. An embassy employee contacted by telephone inside the mission's compound in the eastern sector of San'a would only say that "there has been a security incident."

Regional TV networks, however, were reporting a car bomb explosion outside the embassy and an exchange of gunfire between guards and unidentified assailants. A fire broke out in one of the embassy's buildings, they say. The reports, which could not be independently confirmed, made no mention of casualties."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPT0H4QNxbnAnToQZo5c3pTkPk7AD938B3UO0

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. CNN reporting casualties

Not independently confirmed, from witnesses

[Chrisnreno]

10. From CNN...

"Trev Mason, a British citizen who witnessed the attack told CNN there was a large explosion and fireball. He said there were reports of lots of casualties."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/09/17/yemen.blast/index.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Thanks.... lord I hope it is not that bad

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. AP Update

US Embassy in Yemen hit by car bomb
By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago
SAN'A, Yemen - A U.S. spokesman says the American Embassy in Yemen was hit by a car bomb and that there were unspecified casualties.

ADVERTISEMENT


U.S. Embassy spokesman Ryan Gliha tells The Associated Press by telephone that there was a second explosion Wednesday that followed the initial one. He did not have figures for casualties or know their nationalities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_us_embassy;_ylt=Ai1NPwLLTqUaXGBJs9e.PdNvaA8F

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Second AP update, 0:52 PST, same link as above

A Yemeni security official said the embassy was hit by two car bombs and that heavy gunfire lasting around 10 minutes followed the blasts.

Several nearby homes were badly damaged by the blasts, he said, but had no information on whether the heavily guarded embassy sustained damage too. He said three of the embassy's guards were wounded, but he did not know their nationalities.

A medical official, meanwhile, said at least seven Yemeni nationals were wounded and taken to the city's Republican hospital. They are residents of a housing compound near the embassy and included children, he said.

Both the security and medical officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.

[dipsydoodle]

15. Blasts rock US embassy in Yemen

Source: BBC News

A car bomb targeting the US embassy in Yemen detonated outside the compound's security gate causing "multiple casualties", US officials said.

A series of explosions followed but officials were unable to confirm whether they were separate attacks.

Hundreds of heavily-armed troops have now surrounded the embassy compound in the capital, Sanaa.

Eyewitnesses say an exchange of gunfire between embassy guards and unidentified attackers followed the first blast.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7620362.stm

[Solly Mack]

16. ....

...


K&R

[brettdale]

17. ten dead

Too sad for words.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Now "at least 16 people", according to the updated BBC story (nt)

[Roland99]

18. At least "we're fighting them over there so..."

oh fuck it...


:puke:




:(

[nichomachus]

20. Wow -- a "terrorist" attack six weeks before the election -- who could have guessed

And it isn't even October . . . .

[soleft]

21. Yemen is where the Cole was, right?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

22. Yup nt

[underpants]

23. I guess the Bush Doctrine just blinked

[underpants]

24. 16 dead in car bomb, ambush at US Embassy in Yemen

Source: AP/Yahoo

By AHMED AL-HAJ – 10 minutes ago

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — Suspected militants armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb assaulted the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday. The coordinated attack killed 16 people, including six assailaints, officials said.

The U.S. said no Americans were hurt.

Multiple explosions rang out outside the heavily-guarded facility, and gunfire raged for at least 10 minutes at the concrete checkpoints that ring the compound. The dead included six attackers, six Yemeni guards and four civilians, the state news agency SABA reported.

It was the deadliest attack on a compound that has been targeted four times in recent years by bombings, mortars and shootings. Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, has struggled to put down al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants, often to the frustration of U.S. counterterrorism officials.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPT0H4QNxbnAnToQZo5c3pTkPk7AD938G8S01

[xchrom]

25. the republican war on terrorism is not working. nt

[LynnTheDem]

26. It's working fabulously for the terrorists.

[JSK]

31. It didn't happen in the "Homeland"

so it doesn't count.

:sarcasm:

[sabra]

27. k & r

[skip fox]

28. I feared this sort of thing would happen.

The polls may well swing toward McCain.

[justaregularperson]

29. BREAKING NEWS: U.S. State Dept. says embassy attack in Yemen 'bears hallmarks' of al-Qaida

Here we go.........

[FVZA_Colonel]

30. Well, at least then one can hope they won't try to blame this on Iran...

Eh, who am I kidding, they probably still will.

[ohio2007]

32. Lackawanna High student is killed in attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen

Go figger

A Lackawanna High School student who traveled to Yemen to be married last month was one of the victims of a terrorist bombing Wednesday at the U. S. Embassy in Yemen, the woman’s school principal said. Susan Elbaneh, 18, was killed, along with her Yemeni husband, as they stood outside the embassy, family members said Wednesday. They were apparently there to do paperwork for the husband’s move to the U. S. when the attackers struck, said Elbaneh’s brother, Ahmed.




snip
“It looks like they were two young people in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Hazzan said.

He described the Elbaneh family as “very well known” in Lackawanna’s large Yemen-American community and active in the Guidance Mosque in Lackawanna.
snip
Hazzan, who is of Palestinian descent and speaks fluent Arabic, said a number of girls who attend Lackawanna High School have gone to Yemen in recent years to be married and then have returned to complete school.


http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/441872.html

what are the odds?