A suicide bomber blew himself up Monday at the site of an
ancient temple popular with tourists, killing seven Spanish
tourists and two Yemenis less than two weeks after the US Embassy
issued a terror warning about the area.
The attack took place at about 6:00 PM local time (15:00 GMT)
and the victims were part of a group of 14 Spaniards who were
touring the area. Six more Spaniards and two more Yemenis were
injured and they were transferred to a hospital in Marib province,
about 85 miles east of the capital San'a.
Witnesses said the bomber drove a car through the gate of the
temple compound, and the vehicle exploded near the structure, which
was built about 3,000 years ago and dedicated to the legendary
Queen of Sheba.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities
linked the suicide bomber to al-Qaida. Police said "preliminary
information indicates that Al Qaida is behind this cowardly
attack".?
The Al Qaida group in Yemen had recently issued a statement,
demanding the release of fighters from Yemeni jails and threatening
to carry out attacks if demands are not met.
Also on Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the
deadly terrorist attack in a statement released by his
spokesperson.
Ban said he is appalled by the killing of seven Spanish tourists
and two Yemeni nationals, and the wounding of eight other people.
He condemned this terrorist attack and reiterated that no cause can
justify such acts of indiscriminate violence against civilians.
Less than two weeks ago, the US Embassy warned Americans to
avoid the area. On June 23 in the neighboring Shabwa province, a
Yemeni guard opened fire on a group of foreign oil workers shortly
after they landed at a company airstrip, killing one and wounding
five, including an American.
The provincial governor said at the time that the guard was
mentally ill, but the US Embassy in San'a canceled travel to the
two provinces "for the near future" and recommended that Americans
avoid the area.
Al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of
Osama bin Laden, despite government efforts to fight the terror
network. Al-Qaida was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole
in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French
oil tanker that killed one person two years later.
Yemen was a haven for Islamists from across the Arab world
during the 1990s, but after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it
declared support for the US campaign against international
terrorism.
But its crackdown on militants has suffered a number of
setbacks, such as the February 2006 prison breakout of 23 convicts,
some of whom had been jailed for al-Qaida-linked crimes.
Foreign interests in Yemen often face low-level threats and
tourists are frequently kidnapped by tribes seeking to win
concessions from the government, either better services or the
release of jailed relatives. Most of the hostages have been
released unharmed.
(China Daily via agencies, July 3, 2007)
