Sanaa, Yemen: Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack late yesterday on villas housing US oil experts in Yemen's capital, a security source said today.

"Al-Qaeda has claimed the attack on the villas in Sanaa and the security services have obtained a statement confirming this from one of Al-Qaeda's websites on the Internet," the source, who declined to be named, told AFP.

AFP was unable to access a website that traditionally carries such statements to confirm the claim.

The attack was the latest to hit the impoverished state which has been plagued by Al-Qaeda-linked violence. The attack on the villas, located next to a residential complex for other Westerners, occurred two days after the arrest in Sanaa of an Al-Qaeda operative, Abdullah al-Rimi, according to the security source.

Residents told AFP three rockets struck near the residences of US employees of the Yemen-owned Safer oil company, formerly known as Hunt Oil.

There were no reports of casualties.

The villas are situated close to a residential compound in the Al-Hadda neighbourhood of southwestern Sanaa. Foreigners, including Westerners and Arabs, live in the compound which also houses the oil company's offices.

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants have carried out several attacks in recent years in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of the terror network's chief Osama bin Laden.

Source : PTI