Yemeni militants fire rocket at British embassy car

Militants fired a rocket at a convoy carrying Britain’s deputy ambassador in Yemen and killed a Frenchman working for an oil company today in a pair of attacks increasing fears over the safety of Westerners.

The diplomatic car was carrying five staff members, including the deputy chief of mission Fionna Gibb, to the embassy in the capital San’a when it came under fire, apparently from a rocket-propelled grenade.

One embassy official suffered minor injuries and was undergoing treatment, while the rest were unharmed, Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement.

A Briton was injured in the second attack at the oil company.

It was the second attack in less than six months to target British officials in the country. Yemeni authorities recently boosted security around embassies in San’a after receiving information that al Qaida was planning an attack.

In today’s other attack, a Yemeni security guard shot dead a Frenchman contracted with the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, the company said in a statement. A British national was also injured in the attack outside the capital and taken to hospital.

The motive for the attack was under investigation, but OMV said it “currently sees no political background for the action.”

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the “shameful attack” on the diplomatic convoy and said it “will only redouble Britain’s determination to work with the government of Yemen to help address the challenges that country faces.”

Three bystanders were also wounded, a Yemeni security official said.

The attack came a day after a visit by third-ranking US diplomat William Burns to discuss the security situation.

In April, the British ambassador escaped an attack by a suicide bomber who blew himself up near the diplomat’s armoured car in a poor neighbourhood of the capital. Today’s attack took place in the same neighbourhood of San’a, near the British Embassy.

The violence has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Yemeni government’s US-backed campaign against al-Qaida militants, who have found a haven in parts of the rugged, mountainous nation where the central government’s control is weak.

Yemen says it is waging an aggressive campaign to uproot al-Qaida, and Washington has earmarked some $150m (€108m) in military assistance to the government to help combat the threat with training, equipment and intelligence help.

Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s terror network, was formed more than a year ago when Yemen and Saudi militant groups merged. Al Qaida fighters are believed to have built up strongholds in remote parts of the country, allying with powerful tribes that resent the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The group’s fighters attacked the US Embassy in San’a twice in 2008, and earlier this year a number of Western embassies, including the US and British, shut down for days in response to threats of attack.

The Nigerian suspect in the failed Christmas Day plot to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner has said he received training from al Qaida militants in Yemen, according to US investigators. In February, the offshoot’s military commander, Qassim al-Raimi, warned of further attacks against Americans.