Explosions at Gate

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afHE5JQEJyII&refer=home

Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, killing 17 sailors.

September 17th, 2008:

The assault began at about 9:15 a.m. local time today, with ``a number of explosions'' at the building's main gate, the embassy said in its statement.

The fortified U.S. Embassy, located in the Dhahr Himyar area, lies about 250 meters (820 feet) from the entrance, where the attack took place. A fire was seen blazing from the compound and ambulances headed toward the area.

Of the six attackers killed, one was wearing a suicide belt, Saba said.

The attack involved a first car from which militants exchanged fire with embassy guards, using rocket-propelled grenades, and then a second bomb-laden car was blown up, Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based al-Arabiya said.

``I heard two loud explosions,'' Christy Quirk, 40, a consultant who was located two miles from the embassy in the lobby of the Burj al-Salam hotel in the old city, said in a phone interview.

`Not a Surprise'

``This latest bombing is not a surprise,'' said Laura James, a Yemen analyst in London at the Economist Intelligence Unit. ``It will, however, be a disappointment to the Yemeni government, as it comes after a series of successes in the security forces' campaign to arrest local militants. As such, it may represent a counterattack by al-Qaeda-linked groups.