Two American government personnel were whisked out of Yemen last month after they fatally shot two suspected kidnappers in a commercial district of the country’s volatile capital, U.S. officials said Friday.
The Americans opened fire on armed Yemeni civilians to escape an apparent abduction attempt at barbershop, according to the New York Times, which identified the officials as a Special Operations commando and a Central Intelligence Agency officer.
The U.S. embassy in Yemen has been operating on a limited capacity in recent days as American officials there have sought to limit the movement and exposure of their personnel amid a flurry of threat warnings.
The State Department confirmed Friday night that it had flown out the two officials following the incident.
“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 district in Sanaa,” the State Department said in a statement. “Two of the armed individuals were killed.”
Both the CIA and the Pentagon declined to comment as of yesterday. That’s just how they do things, it seems.
