A schoolgirl and a policemen were killed in a bomb attack on Tuesday on a girls' school near the US embassy that Washington says might have been anti-American but Yemeni authorities said was a criminal act. About 15 children and four policemen were also wounded, a police official told AFP.
"It is a purely criminal incident," the official said, suggesting the attack was not linked to the embassy, located about 500 metres (yards) from the school. But US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he thought it was "fairly safe to assume that the embassy was at least a potential target if not the target," when asked whether the attack was directed at the United States.
He said unknown individuals had fired three mortar rounds in the general vicinity of the US embassy. "While obviously there needs to be an investigation I think the general sense was these things were fired in the general direction of the embassy," he said.
"We also obviously condemn any acts of violence whether directed at us or anyone else." Washington was also looking to work with Yemeni authorities as they investigate the attack "and hopefully able to locate and bring to justice those responsible for it," Casey added.
The embassy was closed and personnel sent home after the incident, he said. Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, is awash with weapons, the scene of frequent incidents of violence and the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
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