YEMEN: Yemini security forces search for kidnapped German nationals

Record ID: 270460

  • Title: YEMEN: Yemini security forces search for kidnapped German nationals
  • Date: 17th December 2008
  • Summary: KHOULAN, NEAR SANAA, YEMEN (DECEMBER 16, 2008) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEWS OF THE KHOULAN TRIBE AREA (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 1st January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords: Yemdunc
  • Location: Yemen
  • Country: Yemen
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA2OH5SHVSCCXRXTEYJ863Z1V7Y
  • Story Text: Yemeni security forces target area where they believe members of a Yemeni tribe are holding three Germans.
    Yemeni troops are encircling a mountainous area in which armed tribesmen are holding three Germans hostage over a land dispute with another tribe, a provincial official said on Monday (December 16).
    The gunmen are also demanding the release of two fellow tribesmen jailed for an earlier kidnapping, an official has said.
    Troops coming from four directions were approaching the area of Khoulan, 60 km (37 miles) east of the capital Sanaa where tribesmen from the Khoulan tribe were believed to be holding the Germans.
    The hostages are a woman who officials said worked for the United Nations and her visiting parents. They were on an excursion in the outskirts of Sanaa when they were seized by the armed tribesmen on Sunday (December 14).
    Yemeni authorities have arrested a number of tribesmen related to the gunmen holding three Germans hostage, security sources said on Tuesday.
    A security official earlier said the government has established contact with the tribe to secure the release of the hostages.
    An Arab newspaper said it had contacted one of the hostages who said she and the others were in good health.
    The German foreign ministry confirmed the three were missing, and that his country were in contact with Yemeni authorities.
    Disgruntled tribesman have often kidnapped Western tourists to demand better living conditions, schools and services in the Arabian Peninsula country, one of the poorest outside Africa.
    Most have been released unharmed, but in 2000 a Norwegian diplomat was killed in a crossfire and in 1998 four Westerners were killed during a botched army attempt to free them from Islamist militants who had seized 16 tourists.
    END
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