More from the Associated Press:
The officials say Qassem Aqlani, who was in his fifties, was shot dead while on his way to work early on Thursday. They say a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire at him and fled the scene.
Aqlani had been working for the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital for nearly 20 years.
Masked gunmen kill U.S. embassy employee in Yemen http://t.co/fN1RG2lQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 11, 2012
Reuters reports that multiple masked gunmen opened fire on the U.S. embassy employee. An unnamed source told Reuters, “This (assassination) operation has the fingerprints of al Qaeda which carried out similar operations before.”
The terrorist attack that killed four Americans in at the U.S. embassy in Benghazi occurred one month ago today.
One month to the day after 4 were killed at the US consulate in Benghazi.
— Susie Moore (@SmoosieQ) October 11, 2012
The embassy is not releasing more information until other staff and the family of Qassem Aqlani have been notified.
US embassy aware of reports that yemeni staff member was killed; holding comment until after family & other staff notified. #yemen
— Adam Baron (@adammbaron) October 11, 2012
Reports are coming in that the assassinated employee was a guard at the embassy, not the chief of security.
https://twitter.com/adammbaron/status/256352420928569347
https://twitter.com/Yemen411/status/256351705409658880
Michelle Malkin notes that the assassination took place on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the deadly USS Cole bombing.
==> On eve of USS Cole bombing anniversary, US embassy guard in Yemen assassinated ==> http://t.co/sxAKWGpf
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 11, 2012
Update:
US embassy security officer killed in #Yemen was leading investigation into attack on embassy this summer. Gummen on motorcycle… Al Qaeda?
— RAGreeneCNN (@RAGreeneCNN) October 11, 2012
CNN reports that the assassinated security official was leading the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
Cue the Bush blamers:
@DefendWallSt We have more and more such altercations because the previous numb brain president. Blame Bush! #GOP
— Susan Klopfer (@sklopfer) October 11, 2012
Shockah! President Priorities is heading to Miami for more celebrity canoodling tonight.
Fundraiser tonight in Miami one of Pres Obama's last. Emceed by Eva Longoria, Performance by Sheila E. 700 donors at minimum $500 each.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 11, 2012
Update:
More on the murdered embassy employee:
US embassy to #yemen confirms murder of Qassim Aqlan, a yemeni who worked as a "national investigator" at the embassy for 11 years.
— Adam Baron (@adammbaron) October 11, 2012
Freelance journalist Adam Baron is based in Yemen. His sources say that contrary to CNN’s report, Qassem Aqlani was not conducting the investigation into last month’s attack and was not on his way to work.
https://twitter.com/adammbaron/status/256458283781599232
https://twitter.com/adammbaron/status/256460798971486208
lots of widely reported misinformation about todays murder of a yemeni US embassy worker. guess i should be used to this by now… #yemen
— Adam Baron (@adammbaron) October 11, 2012
Update:
Baron deleted his tweets (preserved above) indicating “the embassy worker WAS NOT on way to work, head of security, part of embassy breach investigation.” The tweet complaining of “widely reported misinformation” has not been removed.
Update:
CNN initially reported that Aklan was leading the investigation of last month’s attack on the U.S. embassy in Sanaa. CNN now reports that the U.S. State Department has said that Aklan was not involved in that investigation. According to a Yemeni official, the investigation is being overseen by Interior Minister Abdulkader Qahtan.
Twitchy will monitor this breaking news and update as more information becomes available.
Editor’s note: The headline has been updated to reflect that there was more than one gunman.
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