ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last updated: 2:31 pm
September 18, 2008
Posted: 10:08 am
September 18, 2008
SAN'A, Yemen -- At least 25 militants with suspected links to al-Qaida have been arrested in connection with the deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital, a senior security official said Thursday.
The death toll from Wednesday's attack rose to 17 as Yemeni security officials reported that one of the seven civilians wounded in the dramatic assault had died. Among those killed in the deadliest direct assault on a U.S. Embassy in a decade were a young American woman who was recently wed in an arranged marriage and six militants.
The attackers failed to breach the compound's walls, and none of those killed or wounded were U.S. diplomats or embassy employees. But the assault was well-coordinated and more sophisticated than previous attacks on the mission, involving two suicide car bombs and a team of well-armed gunmen that managed to penetrate rings of security right to one of the embassy entrances.
In the sweep after the attack, 25 militants were rounded up from various parts of Yemen over 24 hours and were being questioned by Yemeni and U.S. investigators, the Yemeni security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give details.
It is not unusual for authorities in Yemen, a key partner in the U.S.-led war on terror but for years an al-Qaida stronghold, to round up a large number of suspects after a terror attack.
The official said a U.S. team, possibly from the FBI, was on its way to Yemen to take charge of the investigation. A U.S. Embassy official would not confirm the dispatch of an FBI team.
An Associated Press reporter who visited the embassy Thursday saw a group of non-Yemeni men investigating the damage caused by the attack outside the embassy's large walls. The men were sifting through the debris, plastering what appeared to be white tags on several objects scattered on the ground.
The reporter could also see pieces of what appeared to be human flesh outside the walls, which were pockmarked and stained with blood. There were also a small crater just outside the walls and at least a dozen badly damaged cars, with their windows missing and tires melted.
In Washington, the State Department issued a travel warning, asking American citizens to "defer nonessential travel" to Yemen. The U.S. also authorized - but did not order - the departure of the non-emergency embassy personnel. U.S. embassies in other Arab Gulf countries put out advisories warning Americans to "remain alert to personal security."
The assault began at 9:15 on Wednesday, when militants - some dressed in army uniforms and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons - attacked Yemeni guards at a checkpoint on the street outside the embassy.
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