A terrorist group linked to al Qaeda launched a rocket that hit near the U.S. embassy in Yemen’s capital on Saturday, according to multiple reports.
On Twitter, the embassy said it had “no reason to believe” that it was the target of the attack, though reports from the region said that at least two guards outside of the embassy were injured.
{mosads}The embassy building, officially called the chancery, was “unaffected,” the embassy added.
The al Qaeda splinter group Ansar al Sharia claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter, claiming that it was in response to a U.S. drone strike on Friday. The Friday attack reportedly killed at least two al Qaeda members and may have injured some children in the northern region of al Jawf.
According to Reuters, the rocket was fired from an anti-tank weapon from a car, which sped away quickly afterwards.
The rocket landed about 200 yards away from the heavily guarded embassy, Reuters added, in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
Ansar al Sharia is an affiliate of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group that has been linked to a number of plots against the U.S., though they have so far been unsuccessful.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. told its citizen staff at the embassy in Sanaa to leave the country, due to political unrest and concerns about a possible military standoff after Houthi rebels recently overran the capital.
Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has warned that the country is heading towards civil war.
The State Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Hill.