From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sun Mar 15 2009 - 12:53:54 EST
Five killed in blast at Yemen tourist site
15 Mar 2009 17:14:20 GMT
SANAA, March 15 (Reuters) - Four tourists believed to be South Korean
and a Yemeni man were killed in an explosion at a tourist site in Yemen,
a Yemeni security official said on Sunday.
The official said authorities were investigating the incident in the
city of Shibam in the southern province of Hadramout and trying to
identify those behind it.
The explosion occurred as the tourists visited the city dubbed the
Manhattan of the Desert, which boasts the world's oldest skyscrapers
dating back to the 16th century, the official told Reuters.
Asked if the explosion was an attack, the official said: "Maybe it was a
terrorist attack, but it could also be remnants of dynamite from a mine
going off."
Separately, authorities said they had arrested Abdullah al-Harbi, a
Saudi man who was on a list of 85 suspected militants issued by Saudi
Arabia in February.
In January 2008, two Belgian tourists were killed in Yemen in an attack
blamed on al Qaeda-linked militants who have launched frequent attacks
on government and Western targets, including a U.S. warship and a French
supertanker.
The Arabian Peninsula country, one of the poorest outside Africa, has
been seen as a stronghold of Islamist militants.
The Saudi list was issued after al Qaeda's wing in Yemen, Osama bin
Laden's ancestral home, issued a video on the Internet in which it
changed its name to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in an apparent
attempt to revive the Islamic militant group in Saudi Arabia.
The leader of the group, a Yemeni, appeared on the video and threatened
attacks against Westerners in the region. (Reporting by Mohamed Sudam;
writing by Inal Ersan and Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LF139470.htm
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