Some attacks or significant protests at U.S. embassies over the past three decades ( This news has been taken from the Associated Press website )

_ Sryia, Sept. 12, 2006: Syrian security guards foil an attempt to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. Three gunmen and a Syrian guard were killed and a dozen others were wounded, but no American was injured.

_ Yemen, March 21, 2003: Two people were shot dead and dozens more were injured as police clashed with demonstrators trying to storm the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. About 30,000 protesters rallied against U.S.-led attacks on Iraq.

_ Tanzania and Kenya, Aug. 7, 1998: Twelve Americans were among the 236 people killed in nearly simultaneous bomb attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks later were attributed to al-Qaida.

_ Lebanon, Sept. 20, 1984: A suicide truck-bomb explosion at the U.S. Embassy annex in east Beirut killed at least 14 people, including two Americans and 12 Lebanese. Almost 70 people were wounded.

_ Kuwait, Dec. 12, 1983: Members of an underground Shiite group arranged truck bombings that killed at least four people and wounded more than 80 at the French Embassy and the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait.

_ Lebanon, April 18, 1983: Sixty-three people were killed when a pickup truck loaded with explosives blew up at entrance to U.S. Embassy in Beirut, demolishing most of the building. The dead included 17 Americans, while 112 people were wounded, including 40 Americans. At the time, a shadowy Shiite Muslim group calling itself Islamic Holy War took responsibility for the attack.

_ Iran, Nov. 4, 1979: About 500 Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Teheran along with about 90 hostages, including up to 65 Americans. Six Americans escaped. The Iranian hostage crisis lasts 444 days until Jan. 20, 1981, when 52 remaining U.S. hostages were freed.

Compiled by Julie Reed and Jennifer Farrar in the AP News Research Center.