Medeshi Sept 17 , 2008At least 16 people have been killed in an attack on the US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa by a suicide bomber and armed fighters, the country's interior ministry has said.
A suicide bomber on Wednesday morning drove a car close to the embassy before detonating his explosives, witnesses said, leaving part of the building on fire.
Armed men then attacked the embassy from a second car, they said.
Six guards, four civilians and six attackers died in the assault, the interior ministry said.
A group called Islamic Jihad in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to target the British, Emirati and Saudi embassies in Sanaa, reports say.
Police cordon
A vehicle was on fire on the road near the embassy compound's perimeter and police sealed off the area, witnesses said.
Roads leading to the embassy were closed after the attack.
Mohammed al-Qadi, a political columnist for the Yemen Times, told Al Jazeera: "The attack came at about 9.30 in the morning, when there were not so many people passing in the streets outside the US embassy.
"Otherwise, the casualties could have been a lot more."
The US state department in April ordered all non-essential diplomatic staff to leave the country after an attack on the embassy claimed by al-Qaeda the previous month.
A residential compound used by US oil workers in Sanaa had also come under attack from rockets at that time.
The embassy called on Americans in Yemen to "exercise caution and take prudent security measures, including maintaining a high level of vigilance, avoiding crowds and demonstrations, keeping a low profile, varying times and routes for all travel".
There have been several attacks by fighters in Yemen in recent years.
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