A British embassy vehicle was attacked on
Wednesday. One official was injured, but is expected to be released later
today. The British ambassador to Yemen Tim Torlot speculated that the car was
targeted because it was an embassy vehicle.
Torlot was unsure whether it was an attack specifically because the car was British, or just because it was diplomatic. "A number of diplomatic vehicles pass along the road where we were driving yesterday on their way to work. They tend to be American and British diplomats because of where our embassies are. But it's impossible to say at this stage."
The vehicle, which was on its way to the embassy at the time of the attack, was supposedly hit by a rocket, according to eyewitnesses and officials at the scene. This attack was one of two to hit the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday. The other attack was at the office of Austrian OMV, and oil and gas company working in the region. A French citizen working for the company was killed after a security guard opened fire at the office. He was later apprehended by Yemeni police and being investigated.
While OMV has restrictions on employee travel to Yemen, there are still a number of its employees in the country, as Yemen is a core strategic country in its operations.
Yemen has been plagued by undercurrents of terrorism, and is considered a safe-haven for Al Qaeda militants. "We're not talking about anything on the same scale as Afghanistan or Pakistan yet, and obviously all our efforts are going into ensuring that that doesn't happen," Torlot said.
