Middle East News

Four Korean tourists, Yemeni guide killed in Yemen blast (Roundup)

Mar 15, 2009, 20:01 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Four South Korean tourists and a Yemeni tour guide were killed when a bomb went off near a historical site in south-eastern Yemen on Sunday, police and medics said.

Police officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that four other Koreans and three Yemenis were injured in the explosion that occurred on a mountain overlooking the historical city of Shibam in the Hadhramout province.

They said the bomb went off as a three-car convoy carrying nine Korean tourists drove on a rugged road leading to the Mountain Suhail near Shibam, around 900 kilometres from the capital Sana'a.

They said the nature of the blast was still being investigated.

Hadhramout is one of the strongholds for al-Qaeda in Yemen, and was the scene of a shooting attack on a Belgian tourist convoy in January 2008, in which two female Belgian tourists and three Yemeni drivers were killed.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that a Saudi Arabian man on a Saudi government list of 85 wanted militants was arrested in the southern Yemeni province of Taiz.

The ministry said in a statement that 'Police forces managed to capture the terrorist Abdullah Abdul-Rahman Muhammad al-Harbi, a Saudi national and a member of the al-Qaeda organization.'

The Saudi government released the list last month. Al-Harbi's name was also on a list of 116 Yemeni and suspected foreign militants issued by the Yemeni police last week, the statement said.

It said al-Harbi was 'one of the dangerous al-Qaeda members.'

The ministry said the arrest was made in 'a sting operation in the al-Mudhaffar district of the Taiz province,' some 250 kilometres south of Sana'a.

Separately, the ministry said a leading Yemeni member of al-Qaeda, identified as al-Khadhir al-Jadib, had surrendered to police in the southern province of Abyan.