Yemeni security forces wounded and arrested a gunman after he opened fire at the US embassy in Sanaa late today, a government official said today.
The gunman opened fire with an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle at the fortified compound and was shot and wounded by members of the large Yemeni security force guarding the site.
No embassy staff were hurt. Yemen beefed up security round the embassy today, increasing the number of guards and blocking a road leading to the compound. A US diplomat said the embassy would be closed for the day.
Yemen cracked down on al-Qaeda-linked militants after an attack on the US warship Colein 2000 that killed 17 sailors.
An explosives-filled boat rammed the French tanker Limburgoff the Yemeni coast in 2002.
Yemen, the ancestral home of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11th, 2001, attacks in the United States.