The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Yemen News Agency, AP In this photo released by Yemen News Agency, smoke raises from the U.S. Embassy in San'a, Yemen, Wednesday after a car bomb targeting the Embassy hit the front gate of the compound.

SAN'A, Yemen - A car bomb targeting the U.S. Embassy hit the front gate of the compound in Yemen's capital Wednesday, a U.S. spokesman said. A senior Yemeni security official said six Yemeni guards and four civilians were killed.

The Yemeni guards were assigned to sentry duty outside the embassy by the Interior Ministry. The civilians were three Yemenis and one Indian national, the Yemeni security official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Ryan Gliha, the embassy spokesman, told The Associated Press by telephone that there was a second explosion that followed the initial one, but did not know what caused it.

Another 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.

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.Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard near the embassy in the eastern section of San'a and police swiftly cordoned off the area, according to a government security official and an AP reporter at the scene.

The AP reporter said ambulance cars rushed to the area after the blasts and that hundreds of heavily armed security forces were deployed around the compound.

Police kept reporters well away from the immediate area of the embassy, he said. Regional TV news networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya showed shaky footage of the embassy's area following the blasts, with a heavy cloud of black smoke rising from a spot just beyond concrete blocks painted yellow.

The embassy is ringed by two layers of these blocks, according to San'a residents familiar with the area.

The networks also reported that a fire broke out in one of the embassy's buildings. The AP reporter said a fire truck was seen headed to the scene, but Gliha, the embassy spokesman, denied the report.

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