Given Yemen’s track record of shady dealings with jihadists, it seems reasonable to expect another, well, minimalist response (at best) on their part. “US ‘works closely’ with Yemeni government on rocket attack,” from Agence France-Presse:
WASHINGTON (AFP) “” The United States said Monday it was “working closely” with the Yemeni government on a rocket attack that targeted a compound in Sanaa where US oil experts were reportedly housed.
“We are working quite well and quite closely with the Yemeni government on it,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked for details of the attack.
He then referred journalists to a message available to Americans living in Yemen via the US embassy, which said it had reports that the area of the Al-Hadda Compound in southwestern Sanaa was targeted by three explosive rounds.
Two of them exploded inside the compound and one outside, but there “have been no reports of injuries,” according to the so-called warden message on the embassy website.
“The embassy advises all US citizens to exercise caution in this area of the city, and will report any further information that may become available,” it said.
In Sanaa, a security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack late on Sunday on villas housing US oil experts in the capital.
The source said police had arrested seven people in connection with the attack, adding that three people had fired the rockets from a car on the edge of the neighbourhood where the villas are located.
Residents told AFP three rockets struck near the residences of US employees of the Yemen-owned Safer oil company, formerly known as Hunt Oil.
The attack on the villas, next to a residential complex for other Westerners, came two days after the arrest in Sanaa of an Al-Qaeda operative, Abdullah al-Rimi, according to the security source.
Sunday’s was the latest attack in the impoverished state, which has been plagued by Al-Qaeda-linked violence.