2008 Attack On The American Embassy in Yemen - Responsibility and Arrests

Responsibility and Arrests

The Islamic Jihad of Yemen, an al Qaeda affiliate, has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The group also threatened future attacks against other embassies, including those of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

It released a statement: "We will carry out the rest of the series of attacks on the other embassies that were declared previously, until our demands are met by the Yemeni government." Meanwhile, on September 18, 2008, Yemeni authorities arrested 30 suspects allegedly connected to Al-Qaeda. Foreign Minister Abou Bakr al-Qurbi said: "The attack on the U.S. Embassy was retaliation by al-Qaeda for the measures taken by the government to fight the terrorists." United States Department of State spokesman Sean McCormack said that "the multi-phased attack bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda."

On November 1, a Yemeni security official said the attackers had links to al-Qaida. He added that the United Nations had raised its security level in Yemen in response to such threats. He also elaborated that the six Yemeni men who carried out the attack trained at al-Qaida camps in the southern Yemeni provinces of Hadramut and Marib, while three of them had recently returned from fighting in Iraq.