Yemeni army besieges kidnappers holding British family

British charge de affairs in Sanaa David Percy on Monday said that the Yemeni army forces besieged the village where a British teacher at the French Cultural center, his wife and son are being held captive by the Yemeni Bani Zubian tribe.

"We seek a peaceful settlement," he said, adding that Sanaa governor Muhammad Abdullah al-Soufi has sent to Zammar district, 100 km south of Sanaa, delegates to convince the kidnappers to set free David Mitchell, 48, his wife Caroline, 35, and their 14 year-old son, Ben. Another British diplomat who refused to be identified said that tribal clans on Sunday started mediation and moved to the kidnappers' area, just 60 km east of Zammar city.

A tribal source said Mitchell's kidnappers are demanding that authorities construct and pave a road to their area. Six months earlier they kidnapped a Yemeni engineer for the same reason, al-Nahar reported.

Kidnapping is a familiar phenomenon in Yemen, to which tribes usually resort to as a mean to exert pressures on the authorities to get material benefits or win the release of tribe members held prisoner in the state's jails.

The British family was kidnapped while on their way from Aden to the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, to take a plane to London on Thursday when they were intercepted by an armed group that lead them to a mountainous region inhabited by the Bani Zubian tribe.