SANAA (Reuters) - The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa said on Tuesday that the deployment of a platoon of Marines to Yemen last week was only temporary and that their mission would be limited to guarding the embassy and its staff after its compound was attacked by demonstrators.
The Pentagon said on Friday it had sent a platoon of Marines to Yemen after youths attacked the U.S. Embassy compound in protest against an anti-Muslim film made in the United States. A Yemeni official confirmed about 50 Marines had arrived.
The move drew outrage from many Yemenis, who object to Washington's heavy military involvement in their country, viewing it as a breach of sovereignty.
"Their (the Marines') mission is strictly limited to assisting at our diplomatic facilities and protecting U.S. diplomatic personnel from violence," U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Gerald M. Feierstein, said in a statement.
(Reporting Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Louise Ireland)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
