Yemen search continues for hostages, three found dead (1st Lead)

Jun 16, 2009, 10:28 GMT

Sana'a/Berlin - Security forces in Yemen continued their search Tuesday for six of nine kidnapped Westerners, a day after the mutilated bodies of three of the hostages were found.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin that two German nurses were in all probability among those killed while authorities in Seoul on Tuesday confirmed the death of a South Korean teacher and

Yemeni officials said the bodies of the South Korean and two German nurses were found in a dry river valley in Wadi Nushur, 12 kilometres north-east of the city of Saada in the north-west of the country. They had been killed with pistols and daggers.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Seoul said South Korean doctors in Yemen had identified the body of 34-year-old teacher Eom Young Sun.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said officials would travel to Yemen to formally identify the bodies of the German women.

The three women had worked for the same aid organization in Yemen, the Dutch World Wide Services Foundation, a charity that places medical personnel in hospitals in developing countries.

They were kidnapped on Friday together with five members of a German family and a 45-year-old British engineer in north-western Yemen on Friday. All had been working at a hospital in Saada.

Britain's Foreign Office on Tuesday said it was 'very concerned' at reports that a Briton was among the hostages and that bodies had been found.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and murder. Observers in Saada suggested the possibility that Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda may be behind the crime.

There was also speculation in media reports of a link to the power struggle between local drug smugglers and security forces. The foreigners might have been taken by a druglord to be used as bargaining chips amid a government crackdown on the drug trade.

It was not clear whether there was any link between the latest hostages and a recent kidnapping of a group of 14 foreign doctors and nurses and their relatives by tribesmen north of Sana'a last Thursday. The hostages were released a day later.

Although the government has accused the Shiite rebel group Abdulmalik al-Houthi, there was no evidence of its involvement.

Mohammed Abdul Salam, a spokesman for the rebels, on Tuesday told the German Press Agency dpa, 'The region where the foreigners were kidnapped is full of army roadblocks. The area is not controlled by us, but by state security forces, therefore they carry the responsibility.'