4 South Koreans Die in Bombing at Fort in Yemen

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

SANA, Yemen (AP) — A suicide bomber attacked a group of South Korean tourists in southern Yemen on Sunday, killing four of them, officials said, the latest such attack on foreign visitors here.

The attack occurred as the tourists were posing for photographs near the ancient fortress city of Shibam, in Hadhramaut Province, security officials said. The city, a Unesco World Heritage site, is known as “the Manhattan of the desert” because of its towering 16th-century mud brick buildings.

A Yemeni tour guide was also wounded in the attack. A South Korean Foreign Ministry official confirmed the killings.

Although there were no claims of responsibility, Al Qaeda has a strong presence here.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/world/middleeast/16yemen.html

[Coventina]

1. Yemen blames Al-Qaeda for bombing of S.Koreans

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFZ1crflmqV_3uNNKGs7_y67NWGA

SANAA (AFP) — Yemeni state media blamed Al-Qaeda on Monday for a suicide bombing that killed four South Korean holidaymakers and their local guide in the historic eastern tourism city of Shibam.

An 18-year-old who had been "tricked by Al-Qaeda into wearing an explosives vest" carried out the attack in the ancestral homeland of the militant network's fugitive leader Osama bin Laden, the official Saba news agency said.

On a visit to the city of Shibam in the eastern Hadramawt region, Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi called for the eradication of the those behind it, as survivors, four of them wounded, were flown home.

The survivors took a flight to Seoul on Emirates Airlines via Dubai, an official said, as a South Korean inquiry team arrived in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

[El Supremo]

2. It's not a fort.

It is an ancient city with a wall around it. I've been there.

This is the area where Osama bin Laden's father's family came from.

[Coventina]

3. Qaeda bomber behind Yemen attack trained in Somalia

Source: Reuters

SANAA, March 17 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber behind a deadly attack that killed four South Korean tourists in Yemen was trained in lawless Somalia, just across the busy Gulf of Aden shipping route, a Yemeni security official said on Tuesday.

The bombing, which is likely to further damage the impoverished country's nascent tourism sector, came after repeated calls by al Qaeda leaders for attacks on non-Muslim foreigners in the Arabian Peninsula.

Violence in Yemen has affected foreign firms developing its oil and gas sector, while attacks on foreigners -- including kidnappings by tribesmen -- have hit tourism, diplomats say.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, has for years been battling al Qaeda and similar groups, but no group has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLH935160