Al-Qaida’s roots in Yemen run very deep

Susan Elbaneh, 18, of Lackawanna, N.Y., was killed in the attack.

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) — The deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy may be a watershed moment in Yemen’s on-and-off struggle with terrorism.

For years, the Yemeni government has let some al-Qaida figures and other Islamic extremists go free in political deals hoping to keep them quiet. Now it finds itself having to confront a new generation of militants — younger, more radical and fresh from fighting in Iraq.

Wednesday’s assault on the gate of the U.S. Embassy by a half-dozen gunmen and two vehicles packed with explosives killed 17 people, including six militants, and was the closest extremists have come to penetrating the grounds of the low-slung building in several attempts.

The only American killed in an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen was an 18-year-old senior at Lackawanna High School near Buffalo, who had gone overseas for an arranged marriage to a Yemeni man, her family and the State Department said.

The teen, Susan Elbaneh, went abroad last month, and the couple planned on returning to New York to live, her brother Ahmed Elbaneh said Wednesday.

They were at the embassy to fill out paperwork for her husband’s move. He was also killed in Wednesday’s attack.

Grieving relatives and friends gathered Wednesday at the family home in this former steel town known better now as the home of the “Lackawanna Six” for a group of Yemeni-American men imprisoned for traveling to an al-Qaida training camp in 2001.

She was related to a seventh alleged member of the group, Jaber Elbaneh, who faces U.S. charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Relatives stressed that neither Susan nor they have had any contact with him.

After the bloodshed, police rounded up 25 suspected militants with ties to al-Qaida, and an FBI team headed here to join the investigation. Many Yemenis saw the operation as more than just an assault on the American presence, but part of a new al-Qaida war on Yemen’s government.

Several Yemeni security officials told The Associated Press they had seen a return of militants from Iraq’s insurgency and believe they have been involved in recent attacks on tourists, foreign companies and oil facilities. The officials agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name because they weren’t authorized to speak with journalists.

Some people said the violence should make the government reassess its strategy.

“A hot and cold policy doesn’t work anymore,” said Mohammed Abulahoum, head of foreign relations for the ruling General People’s Congress party. “A clear-cut strategy has to be worked out. We are probably looking at the tip of the iceberg with these incidents.”

American officials long have been frustrated over what is seen as a “revolving door” policy toward al-Qaida militants by President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government. Yemen has let some convicted militants go free for promising to refrain from violence, and in several cases Washington has stepped in to press for particular extremists to be kept in custody.