Yemen: Four British diplomats escaped an al-Qaeda attack on their car on Wednesday

(October 6, 2010)

The al-Qaeda attack on a car carrying four British diplomats in the Yemen's capital Sana.. The Yemen's Interior Ministry said in a statement that police would 'continue search for perpetrators of this terrorist crime that carry the hallmarks of al-Qaeda terrorist group.'

Witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa that two men disguised in street-cleaner uniforms fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the car as it passed them on the Thalatheen street at the Noqum area, in the east of the city. He and other witnesses said the embassy car ran over a woman and her daughter after it was hit by the rocket. A security source said three passers-by were injured. The ministry, however, said only a woman and a girl were injured. They were rushed to hospital, they said.

Sources confirmed that Fionna Gibb, the British deputy ambassador to Yemen, was among diplomats travelling in the embassy car when it was attacked. But she escaped unhurt.