[2] On 11 August, five militants including group leader Hamza al-Quyati was killed in a raid by Yemeni security forces in Tareem, Hadhramaut.

[5][6] The attack began at 09:15 a.m. AST (UTC+3) when militants dressed in army uniforms and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles opened fire on a security checkpoint at the main gate of the compound from a car on the street outside the embassy.

[12][13] Amid the gunfight, a second SVBIED drove through the gate and checkpoint and detonated itself near a sidewalk of a civilian entrance to the embassy after hitting a ring of protective concrete blocks surrounding it.

[22] Elbanah, an 18-year-old Yemeni-American high school senior and native of Lackawanna, New York, had went to the embassy in Yemen in order to help her husband, whom she had wed less than a month prior in an arranged marriage,[23] sign paperwork to attain approval for moving to the US.

[24] Elbanah was a distant relative of Lackawanna Six al-Qaeda supporter Jaber Elbaneh who was incarcerated in Yemen at the time, though her family stated that she had no relationship with him and was a "victim of terrorism.

"[23][24] Immediately after the attack, a little-known group called Islamic Jihad in Yemen claimed responsibility for conducting it in a statement posted online.

[26][27] US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack and another US counterterrorism official said that despite the fact that it was too early to attribute blame to it, the attack bore “all the hallmarks” of al-Qaeda, citing "multiple vehicle-borne devices, along with personnel on foot.

"[31][32] On 1 November, a Yemeni security official stated that the attackers were trained at al-Qaeda camps in Hadhramaut and Marib Governorates and that three of the militants had recently returned from fighting in Iraq.

"[9] The US State Department advised American citizens to avoid unessential travel to Yemen and gave non-emergency embassy personnel authorization to leave the country.

"[38] President George W. Bush labeled the attack as "a reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives” during an appearance at the White House with Army General David H.