U.S. embassy in Yemen says not closed due to attack
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The U.S. embassy in Yemen said on Thursday it was not closed due to a car bomb attack outside its compound a day earlier. (UPDATED)
Al Jazeera TV reported earlier on Thursday that the U.S. embassy in Sanaa had closed after the attack.
"I am sitting in the embassy right now," a U.S. embassy spokesman said.
He said the embassy was closed to visitors because Thursday is the first day of the weekend in Yemen, not due to the attacks.
Two suicide car bombs Wednesday set off a series of explosions outside the U.S. embassy in Yemen, killing 16 people including six attackers. No U.S. citizens were hurt.
Yemeni authorities have arrested 19 people suspected of being connected to al Qaeda and having links to Wednesday's attack on the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Al-Arabiya television said on Thursday.
The U.S. State Department has said the bombings bore "all the hallmarks" of an al Qaeda attack but the United States had not yet concluded who was to blame.
A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen, which is unrelated to the Palestinian group with a similar name, claimed responsibility and threatened attacks on other embassies including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
It threatened to launch a series of attacks unless Yemen freed several jailed members.
"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," the group said in a statement on Wednesday.