Yemen mosque attacker executed by firing squad

Mar 4, 2009, 14:56 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - A man convicted of killing ten people in a shooting rampage outside a mosque in north-western Yemen last year was executed by a firing squad in his home city Wednesday, a security source said.

A police firing squad shot dead Abdullah Saleh al-Kohali, 27, in the central prison of Amran, some 70 kilometres north of the capital Sana'a, the source said.

He was executed after the verdict sentencing him to death was read out by a judge at the prison's courtyard, the source added.

Officials have said the assailant opened fire from a machinegun as worshippers were performing the prayers outside the mosque in the Bait al-Aqari village of Kohal district in Amran last May.

Relatives of the dead worshippers attended the execution, but photographers and cameramen were not allowed into the prison.

Al-Kohali was convicted to death by a court in Amran last June after he confessed to the crime. The ruling has been confirmed by an appeal court.

He told the court he intended to avenge his honour by killing a man sexually involved with his sister. He said the main target of his shooting was a fellow clansman.

'He got my sister pregnant three times,' the defendant said.

Judges refused the defendant's lawyers arguments that he was mentally incompetent.

The court also ordered the convicted man to pay 5.7 million riyals (about 28,700 dollars) in compensation to the 15 people wounded in the attack.

Attacks at mosques happen frequently in this impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

In the latest attack, 16 people were killed and scores injured after a booby-trapped motorcycle blew up outside a mosque after the weekly prayers in north-western Saada province on May 2, 2008.

In April 2008, a man set fire to a village mosque in Amran and burned scores of worshippers.

The fire gutted the mosque as nearly 100 worshippers were attending the weekly Friday prayers after the attacker sprayed petrol on the worshippers, set them on fire and locked the mosque's only door. Authorities said a family dispute was behind the attack.

In 2003, a man attacked a crowded mosque with a bomb leaving three worshippers killed and more than 40 wounded. Four people were killed in a shooting spree in a mosque in 2001.