Yemen: Militants attack tourists
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) - January 18, 2008 The victims were traveling in a convoy of at least four vehicles
through an ancient, ruin-filled desert valley called Wadi Daw'an in
Yemen's eastern Hadramut region when the gunmen attacked, a
security official said. Four people were wounded.
Karina Lambert, who survived the attack, said it was carried out
by four gunmen hiding behind a pickup truck parked by the road.
"They wanted to kill, that's sure, because after the first
bursts of machine-gun fire, they approached the vehicles and fired
into the cars," she told Belgium's RTL-TVI television network.
The Yemeni official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak to the media, said helicopters were
searching the area, which was sealed off.
"We don't have any precise information about the involvement of
Islamists, but we have to note that the province of Hadramut is
know for its Islamism and its extremist groups," Belgian Foreign
Minister Karel De Gucht said.
He said the Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning singling
out the region where the attack took place: "We have indicated
very clearly that this was a risky business." He identified one victim as Claudine Van Caille, 65. He declined
to identify the other dead Belgian because the family had not yet
been informed.
Bin Laden's ancestral homeland is located just north of where
the attack took place. The area is rich with historical sites and
was part of the ancient kingdom of Hadramut that stretched from the
southern Arabian Peninsula along the Gulf of Aden east to Oman's
Dhofar region.
Tourists often go through the Wadi Daw'an en route to Shibam, an
ancient town of mud brick houses, some as high as nine stories.
In July, a suicide bomber in an explosives-packed car attacked
tourists visiting a temple linked to the ancient Queen of Sheba in
central Yemen, killing eight Spaniards and two Yemenis. Yemeni
authorities blamed that attack on an al-Qaida cell.
An Interior Ministry official, also speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Yemeni authorities received e-mail and telephone
threats of imminent terrorist attacks over the past two days. The
official said al-Qaida militants were pushing for the release of
jailed comrades.
Yemen has long been a center of militant activity, and al-Qaida
continues to have an active presence despite a government
crackdown. Al-Qaida was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole
in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French
oil tanker that killed one person two years later.
In February 2006, 23 al-Qaida militants broke out of a prison in
San'a. Six of the escapees have since been killed in clashes and 11
recaptured.
One of those still at large, Qasim al-Raymi, has been accused by
Yemeni authorities of involvement in the July suicide bombing
against the Spanish tourists. Another, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, was later
named in a Web statement as the leader of "Al-Qaida in Yemen."
Yemen has also seen turmoil from unruly tribes in lawless areas
of the mountainous, impoverished country. Foreign tourists are
frequently kidnapped by tribes seeking to win concessions from the
government, either better services or the release of jailed
relatives. Most have been released unharmed.
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Associated Press Writer Paul Ames contributed to this report
from Brussels, Belgium.