SANAA, Oct 6, (AFP): A British embassy car came under rocket attack in Yemen on Wednesday and a Frenchman working for an Austrian oil firm was shot dead, highlighting the growing dangers in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest nation. The Yemeni government pointed the figure at al-Qaeda. Police in Sanaa said a rocket-propelled grenade targeted the car about three kms (two miles) from the British embassy, the second attack on a British diplomatic vehicle in the city in six months. “A British embassy vehicle was attacked at approximately 0815 local time (0515 GMT),” a British Foreign Office statement said. “The vehicle was on its way to the British embassy, with five embassy staff on board. One member of staff suffered minor injuries and is undergoing treatment, all others were unhurt,” it added. A diplomat said the vehicle was carrying Fiona Gibb, the deputy head of mission, but that she was unhurt.

The Foreign Office would not confirm the identities of those in the car. Foreign Secretary William Hague called the attack shameful. “This morning’s attack on staff of the British embassy in Sanaa highlights the risks our diplomats face working for Britain’s interests abroad,” he said in a statement. “This shameful attack on British diplomats will only redouble Britain’s determination to work with the government of Yemen to help address the challenges that country faces.” Yemen said the attack “carries the fingerprints of al-Qaeda.” “Security services are carrying out their investigations to arrest those involved in this terrorist crime,” said a statement on the defence ministry’s 26sep.net website.

Meanwhile, a Frenchman working for Austrian energy group OMV in Yemen was shot dead and a British colleague injured by a guard at the firm’s Sanaa compound on Wednesday, OMV and security officials said. One official said that an armed guard opened fire, crying “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). He was unable to say if the guard was motivated by personal or other reasons. Police investigators named the shooter as Hisham al-Wafi, a 19-year-old they described as “religious” who had been working as a security guard for OMV for three months. OMV confirmed the death of a French contractor, and that a British national, described as an expert who worked at the company’s branch office, was also wounded in the attack. The company said it saw “no political background for the action taken by the Yemeni security guard.” It has about 300 employees in the country, including 55 expatriates, it said.

Advice
Following Wednesday’s rocket attack, the travel advice section of the British embassy’s website warned against “all but essential travel” to Yemen “due to the threat of terrorism, kidnapping and tribal violence.”
On April 26, a suicide bomber hurled himself at the British ambassador’s two-car motorcade in a Sanaa street as it neared the embassy compound.
The suicide bomber wounded three bystanders and damaged a police escort car as he threw himself at the convoy and detonated his explosive belt. Ambassador Timothy Torlot escaped unharmed.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group’s local branch, later claimed the attack, which saw the embassy closed for two weeks.
Britain’s embassy in Sanaa also closed for three days in January due to the threat of an attack by al-Qaeda, the mission said.
Britain, along with Yemen and Saudi Arabia, co-chaired a Sept 24 meeting in New York City of the “Friends of Yemen” international support group.
At the meeting, Britain warned of “massive dangers” to world security should Yemen become a failed state.

In an interview with Yemeni journalists published Wednesday on the US embassy’s website, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns said Washington supports Yemen in combatting al-Qaeda, but does not aim to replace it in the fight.
“Our focus is on supporting the capacity and the efforts of Yemeni forces. We’re not seeking to substitute for them,” he said.
“I believe they’re making progress in expanding their capabilities and we’re doing everything we can to continue to help,” he added.
“We believe that the challenge that’s posed by terrorists and violent extremists in Yemen is a very real one,” Burns said.
The United States has become increasingly concerned about the threat posed by Islamist militancy in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, and has warned of the potential for the country to become a regrouping ground for al-Qaeda militants.
Sanaa has intensified its operations against AQAP amid mounting pressure from Washington after the militant group claimed responsibility for a botched attack on US-bound airliner on Christmas Day last year.

Warning
Germany’s interior minister hit out Wednesday at travel warnings for visitors to Europe issued because of the risk of al-Qaeda attacks, saying such tactics helped “terrorists” spread fear.
“We are taking things seriously. But public accompanying music is also something that terrorists use, because they want to spread fear,” Thomas de Maiziere told radio station Deutschlandfunk.
“We are working without talking a lot.”
This week the United States, Britain, Japan and Sweden issued alert warnings of the “possible terrorist attack” by al-Qaeda and affiliated groups against their citizens travelling in Europe.
This followed reports in British and US media that said that an al-Qaeda plot to carry out attacks in Britain, France and Germany, similar to the siege in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people, had been uncovered.
The source was a German citizen of Afghan descent being held in Afghanistan, the reports said, but a US official told AFP this week that the warning was based on a “growing body of information” collected over time.
He was one of an increasing number of Germans who authorities say are travelling to Pakistan’s the tribal border region for training by Islamist militants, either to fight NATO forces or to return home and carry out attacks.
The man, named as Ahmed Siddiqui, is also reported to have known Mohamed Atta, one of the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and to have worshipped at the same mosque — since closed — in Hamburg.

A US drone strike this week in North Waziristan, a purported hideout for foreign and homegrown militants linked to the Taleban and al-Qaeda, killed five Germans, Pakistani security sources said.
German authorities in June put the number of people living in Germany who have attended such camps at around 200. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily reported on Wednesday that 30-40 Germans are currently in the tribal border region.
“After Britain, Germany appears now to be one of the most important European recruitment centres for Islamic extremists,” the daily Die Welt said in an editorial on Wednesday.
“At the moment we have lots of indications, including from independent sources, about activities in the Pakistani border region or plans for Germany,” de Maiziere said.
“We follow up all of these leads, we ratchet up our internal measures, we are in the closest possible contact with our partners. But we work more and seriously, rather than talk about it,” he said.
“How I would react if there were (a concrete danger) would depend on the security situation, my assessment of it, because the security situation and dealing with the danger to the population have priority over public statements and the question of how one looks tactically.”

The minister added that “no one should fool themselves that Germany is not also a target for terrorists,” but that there were no “concrete indications of plans for any imminent attack.”
Germany, which has around 4,800 soldiers in Afghanistan and a four-million strong Muslim community, has never suffered a “terror” attack.
In 2006, suitcases with homemade bombs inside were placed on two German trains but they failed to detonate, and in 2007 three Islamists planning to attack US targets in Germany were caught with explosive chemicals.
Ingo Peters, an expert in international relations at Berlin’s Free University, said that Europeans and Americans had different assessments of the risks, partly because of the “trauma” of Sept 11, 2001.
“There is greater alarmism in the United States,” Peters told AFP, adding: “Ninety percent of what is said publicly in America is for domestic consumption, not for the rest of the world.”