At least 25 suspects with links to al-Qaeda have been arrested in connection with the deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital, a senior security official said Thursday. The attack Wednesday killed 16 people, including a young American woman.
According to the AP, the Yemeni official said the 25 were detained from various parts of Yemen over the past 24 hours and were being questioned by Yemeni and U.S. investigators. The official said an American team, possibly from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was on its way to Yemen to take charge of the investigation.
In Washington, the State Department issued a travel warning, asking U.S. citizens to "defer nonessential travel" to Yemen. The U.S. also authorized the departure of the non-emergency embassy personnel.
Susan Elbaneh, 18, a U.S. citizen from Lackawanna, N.Y., who was recently wed in Yemen in an arranged marriage, was killed along with her Yemeni husband as they stood outside the embassy, family members said Wednesday. They were apparently there to do paperwork for the husband's move to the U.S. when the attackers struck, said Elbaneh's brother, Ahmed. The State Department confirmed the deaths Thursday.
President Bush called the attack "a reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives."
