Two officers at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen shot and killed a pair of armed Yemeni civilians during an attempted abduction of the Americans at a Sanaa business last month, the State Department said Friday, according to Reuters.
Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said in a statement the officers left Yemen after the the shooting occurred on April 24 with permission from the Yemeni government, but no other details provided, Reuters reported.
The Americans were a CIA officer and a lieutenant colonel with the elite Joint Special Operations Command who were visiting a barber shop in an upscale district in Yemen's capital, according to Reuters.
"We can confirm that, last month, two U.S. embassy officers in Yemen fired their weapons after being confronted by armed individuals in an attempted kidnapping at a small commercial business in Sanaa," Harf said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa closed temporarily because of attacks on Westerners, Reuters reported. A day before Tuesday's closure, gunmen opened fire on three French security guards working with the European Union mission in the Yemeni capital, killing one and wounding another.
The U.S. has waged a heavy campaign of drone strikes in Yemen against the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and this month, the Yemeni government has been waging an offensive against the militant group, heightening violence in the area, according to Reuters.
On Friday, gunmen believed to be al-Qaida militants ambushed the motorcade of Yemen's defense minister in the Mahfad region, but the assassination attempt failed, Reuters reported.
Later in the day, a security checkpoint near the presidential palace in Sanaa came under attack and at least two policemen died, according to Reuters. A night earlier in Sanaa, two al-Qaida militants from Marib province were killed in clashes with security men, the Interior Ministry said.
