US land mine experts come back to Yemen

A US diplomatic source said on Tuesday that US experts in the area of land-mine dismantling have recently returned to Yemen following a three-month absence after they received threats.

AFP quoted the same US source as saying that the 35 experts returned to Aden, where they have been since October 1998 supervising a program started by the US Defense Department to dismantle weapons implanted in 1994.

The source added that these experts were never evacuated, but returned to their country on the Christmas vacation before the materialization of threats and were recently permitted to return back to Yemen.

Armed men kidnapped at the end of December 1998 some 16 western tourists, and four of the hostages were killed during an attack launched by the Yemeni security forces to release them.