Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Apr. 7 -- The Al Qaeda terrorist organization, building on earlier claims, has taken responsibility for a rocket attack on a residential complex in Yemen that houses executives and the headquarters of Safer E&P Operations Co.

"Al Qaeda has issued a statement claiming the attack," said a Yemeni security official. Residents reported no injuries after three rockets struck near the residences of US employees of the Yemen-owned Safer E&P.

The official said police had arrested seven people in connection with the attack, adding that three people had fired the rockets from a car on the edge of the complex of villas in the al Hadda district in southwestern Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.

The attack occurred 2 days after the arrest in Sanaa of Al Qaeda operative, Abdullah al Rimi, who was sought by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Al Rimi has been identified as taking part in attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2003 and on the USS Cole in 2000 in the Yemeni port of Aden, which killed 17 US sailors and injured many others.