Hostages killed in Yemen during attempt to free them
A Yemeni official has said that three western hostages held in Yemen, two Britons and one American, were killed and another 13 hostages were freed when Yemeni security forces attacked the place where the hostages were being held. Two of the kidnappers were also killed, the official said.
Other reports said that four of the tourists, all British, and three kidnappers were killed in the incident yesterday, information on which a British official called "confused" and marked by "conflicting evidence."
Yemeni security forces arrested all the kidnappers who on Monday held 16 Western tourists, including 12 Britons, two Americans and two Australians in Abyan governorate.
Earlier the Yemeni police announced that the "Islamic Jihad" group kidnapped the western tourists and called for the release of its leader as well as the lifting the embargo imposed on Iraq.
This is the first time a "hostage kidnapping " in Yemen, which witnesses frequent kidnappings by tribesmen, has ended in death. During the past few years some 150 foreigners were kidnapped in Yemen, and they were released without bloodshed. It is also the first time in which an Islamic group has carried out a kidnapping operation in Yemen.
The police said the kidnappers demanded the release of their leader, Saleh Haidara al-Atawani, and the lifting of the embargo imposed on Iraq since 1990.
On Tuesday, the local authorities in Abyan province, southern Yemen, announced that the security forces were deployed in the area where the 16 tourists were being held.
An official in the province said that the governor of Abyan also went to al-Wadee area where the hostages were held to follow up on the efforts aimed at releasing the hostages.
Another official in Abyan said that number of kidnappers is 20. One official at al-Ma'moun agency for tourism in Sanaa, Yahya al-Haifi, said the hostages include six women and six men of British nationality, two American women and two Australian men all aged between 40 and 45.
Al-Haifi added that the hostages were part of a 20-member tourist group visiting Yemen since December 20, and they were on a sight-seeing tour. He stated that the tourists started from Sanaa, visited Maarenb -- the capital of the old Kingdom of Sabaa in Eastern Yemen -- and Hadramout in southeastern Yemen. They were heading for Aden when armed men stopped them in Abyan, he said. He added that four of the 20 tourists escaped with their cars.
On Monday the British Foreign Ministry said that according to information from the British embassy in Sanaa, 12 Britons were kidnapped together with four other Westerners.