Bystanders injured after explosion near British Embassy in Yemeni capital

Bystanders injured after explosion near British Embassy in Yemeni capital

2010-10-06 15:31:13 GMT+7 (ICT)

SANAA, YEMEN (BNO NEWS) -- At least three people were injured on Wednesday after an explosion near the British Embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanna, officials said.

A British official in London confirmed the incident but said no foreign casualties were reported after the attack targeting a vehicle carrying the deputy chief of the mission. Further details were not immediately available.

In April, Timothy Torlot, the British ambassador escaped a suicide attack, after a young man detonated his explosives belt near the diplomat’s car. In March 2009, a similar attack targeted a convoy carrying South Korean officials but no casualties where reported.

The country on September 21 launched a full scale offensive against al Qaeda operations in the country’s southeast, dispatching forces backed by heavy weaponry, jets, and helicopters.

The Yemeni government has been fighting a growing al Qaeda element in the region called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The militant offshoot of al Qaeda grabbed the attention of the West with the Christmas Day attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines trans-Atlantic flight as it landed in Detroit, Michigan. The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has pleaded not guilty to six federal terrorism charges, was reportedly trained and given arms in Yemen.

Since the organization’s founding in January 2009, AQAP has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against Saudi, Korean, Yemeni, and U.S. targets.

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