American among dead in embassy blast

SANAA, Yemen, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The number of people killed in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen rose to 17 when a Yemeni civilian died of his injuries, security officials said.

The U.S. State Department confirmed that an 18-year-old woman from New York was among the victims of Wednesday's blast, The Washington Post reported.

The dead included six Yemeni security forces, five civilians and six assailants.

The State Department said U.S. security and law enforcement officials were working with the Yemeni government in the investigation, the Post reported. The attackers used vehicle bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in the assault but didn't breach the walls of the compound in Sanaa.

The U.S. victim was identified as Susan Elbaneh, a Yemeni American who married Abdul Jaleel less than a month ago, the Los Angeles Times reported. She was in Yemen help her husband get the approval needed to come to the United States, her relatives in Lackawanna, N.Y., said. The couple apparently were waiting to enter the embassy when the attack began.

Elbaneh was a cousin Jaber Elbaneh, on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorism suspects, the Times said. Jaber Elbaneh is accused of being a member of the so-called Lackawanna Six, a group that went to Afghanistan in 2001 to train in al-Qaida camps.

Two federal officials confirmed that the investigation is focusing on al-Qaida cells they believe have a connection to Jaber Elbaneh, the Times said.

"I'm sure that she was there by accident," a federal official told the Times. "She's not a bad guy."