16 people have been killed in an attack on the US embassy in Yemen.
The embassy was attacked with a car bomb and rockets, causing multiple casualties, an embassy spokesman said.
It was the second strike on the high-security compound in six months.
Gunmen attacked the Yemeni police detachment outside the heavily fortified embassy compound before a suicide bomber blew up a car right by the entrance, setting off a fire.
The dead were six Yemeni soldiers, four civilians including an Indian and six attackers - one wearing an explosives belt. There were no US casualties.
A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen claimed responsibility and threatened similar strikes against the British, Saudi and United Arab Emirates missions in the Yemeni capital.
The White House has condemned the attack.
The embassy said it would work with the Yemeni authorities to bring the perpetrators of the 'heinous' attack to justice, adding that both its chancery and consular sections would remain closed until further notice.
Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has grappled with a spate of al-Qaeda attacks this year.
An al-Qaeda-affiliated group claimed responsibility in March for a mortar attack that missed the US embassy in Sanaa but wounded 13 girls at a nearby school.
The US ordered non-essential staff to leave Yemen in April, a day after an attack on a residential compound.
The Yemeni government joined the US-led war against terrorism following the 11 September 2001 attacks on US cities.
The government of the Arab country has also been fighting Shia rebels in the northern province of Saada since 2004 and faced protests against unemployment and inflation.
