By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
SA’NA, Yemen – The British ambassador in Yemen survived an attack Monday morning by a lone suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt as the ambassador’s convoy was passing, witnesses said.
he ambassador, Timothy Torlot, was unhurt, said Chantel Mortimer, a spokeswoman for the British Embassy. There did not appear to be anyone injured aside from the bomber himself, according to witnesses at the scene in Sana, the Yemeni capital.
Reuters reported that three people, including two policemen escorting the ambassador’s motorcade, were injured. The neighborhood where the attack occurred is packed with tea shops and markets.
“There was a small explosion beside the British ambassador’s car. He was unhurt. No other embassy staff or British nationals were injured,” said a spokesman for the British Foreign Office. “The embassy will remain closed to the public for the time being.”
No one had claimed credit for the attack by late Monday, but senior Yemeni officials said it bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda. The terrorist network’s regional branch, which has its base in Yemen, has claimed credit for numerous assaults on foreign embassies in Sana, including an ambitious suicide car bomb attack on the well-fortified American Embassy in September 2008 that left 16 people dead, including 6 attackers. Recent attacks have mostly been in outer provinces, but earlier this year, the group threatened to carry out a major attack in the capital.
American intelligence officials regard Yemen’s Al Qaeda branch, made up mainly of Yemenis and Saudis, as a major threat to U.S. regional interests. Washington has been skeptical of Saleh’s government, which for years appeared to tolerate militants as long as they carried out attacks in other countries. Sana’s sentiments appeared to shift in late 2009, however, when the terrorist group became a threat to Saleh, who also was contending with a civil war in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.
The British Foreign Office website states: “We believe that terrorists continue to plan attacks. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including against Western and British interests, such as residential compounds, military and oil facilities, and transport and aviation interests.”
For more information, please see:
BBC News – Al-Qaeda Blamed For Yemen Bomb Attack On UK Envoy – 26 April 2010
VOA – UK Envoy To Yemen Escapes Suicide Bomb Attack – 26 April 2010
The New York Times – Suicide Attack In Yemen Misses British Envoy – 26 April 2010
Los Angeles Times – Suicide Bomber Attacks British Ambassador’s Motorcade In Yemen – 26 April 2010
