An armour-plated car carrying five British embassy staff, including the Deputy Chief of the Mission, was targeted on Wednesday by militants amid a fresh wave of violence against Western interests in Yemen's capital Sana'a.
Militants appeared to have fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the car at around 8.15 a.m. The car was attacked on Khawlan Street, around three kilometres from the embassy, where it was heading.
“One member of staff suffered minor injuries and is undergoing treatment, all others were unhurt,” the British Foreign Ministry said in a statement. At least “two bystanders” were injured, the statement added. A suicide bomber had in April attacked a British diplomatic convoy in which the Ambassador had been travelling. Three passers-by had been injured in that attack, which also damaged a police car.
Security around embassies had been strengthened earlier this week after warnings that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was planning attacks. The AQAP, formed by the merger of the Al-Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi branches, came into prominence after it took responsibility for a failed attack on a U.S.-bound jetliner in December 2009. In 2008, prior to the emergence of the AQAP, the Al-Qaeda had taken responsibility for mounting an attack on the American embassy in Sana'a, in which 16 people, including the six attackers, had been killed.
Separately on Wednesday, a French national was killed and a British contractor seriously wounded after a security guard at an Austrian gas company, OMV, fired at them. The incident took place on the outskirts of Sana'a. According to an OMV statement, its French employee worked as a procurement officer, while the British national has been working as a specialist within the branch office. The company did not attribute any political motive to the attack.
