British consulate in Yemen threatened after car bomb kills 16 outside U.S. embassy

The heavily-fortified compound was on fire after the two explosions. Heavy gunfire was also heard and smoke seen rising from the compound, witnesses said. A Yemeni security source said 16 people including six attackers died in the attack. Four were bystanders.

A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen took credibility for the attack. It also threatened that it would target the British, Saudi and Emirati missions in the Yemeni capital, according to a statement received by AFP. 

One of two cars carrying bombs that exploded outside the U.S. embassy in Yemen today

Smoke rises from the area around the U.S. embassy in Sanaa after a car bomb went off, killing at least 16 people

Islamic Jihad has roots in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and is affiliated with Al Qaeda. The Egyptian branch was led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who merged it with Al Qaeda in 1998.

It had threatened in a previous statement on Tuesday to launch a series of attacks unless the Yemeni government met its demands for the release of several members from jail.

"We, the organisation of Islamic Jihad in Yemen declare our responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sanaa," the statement read.

"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."

Police cars and Yemeni forces block the entrance to the U.S. embassy this morning after the attack

Smoke is seen billowing outside the the embassy as emergency vehicles gather

Initial reports suggested the attackers, who were said to be dressed as soldiers, managed to get through numerous checkpoints on the road leading to the embassy.

Only when they reached the gate of the embassy did someone check their identity. At that point they detonated a bomb, opened gunfire on the compound and launched rocket-propelled grenades. 

Yemeni officials were not immediately available to comment on the cause of the blasts or the number of casualties, but ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scene and police cordoned off the area.

A U.S. embassy official declined to comment.

Debris litters the street as guards wait for emergency services

A boy holds a spent bullet following the car bombing

Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has grappled with a spate of al Qaeda attacks this year, including one on the U.S. embassy, another near the Italian mission and others on Western tourists.

An al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed responsibility in March for a mortar attack that missed the U.S. embassy in Sanaa but wounded 13 girls at a nearby school.

The United States ordered non-essential staff to leave Yemen in April, a day after an attack on a residential compound.

The Yemeni government joined the U.S.-led war against terrorism following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.

The government of the poor Arab country has also been fighting Shi'ite rebels in the northern province of Saada since 2004 and faced protests against unemployment and inflation.

The British embassy in Yemen was bombed in 2000.