Seven out of nine foreign hostages, including a child, were found murdered in northern Yemen yesterday, a security official said.
“We have found the corpses of seven people who were kidnapped,” the official said. “They were killed.”
Two of the three children captured with the group were reportedly found alive.
The bodies were found by the son of a tribal leader in Noshour, east of the volatile Saada mountainous area of northern Yemen where the nine were abducted, the official said.
The authorities had accused Shiite Zaidi rebels in Saada of seizing seven Germans, a British engineer and a South Korean woman teacher. The rebels denied the charge.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the kidnapping — the latest in a string of abductions of foreigners in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Dubai-based security analyst Fares bin Houzam said it was possible al-Qaeda was behind the deaths.
“It’s very rare for kidnappers in Yemen to kill, we have to wait to know what happened. But whoever is behind this, this is a fatal blow to security in Yemen,” he said.
In Berlin German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could not confirm the report of deaths of hostages.
“We know of this information. We are pressing ahead for examination of this information. For the moment, I cannot give any confirmation,” she said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry also said it had no information and was checking the report.
Seoul had confirmed that a South Korean identified only by her family name Eom had been missing in Yemen since Thursday evening when she joined other members of a relief group for a walk.
Local sources said the group was a Christian Baptist organization.
A Yemeni official said on Sunday that the group was taken hostage by members of the Huthi Zaidi rebel group, which has been fighting the government since 2004.
But a rebel spokesman dismissed the accusation as “baseless,” and said the kidnapping took place in an area controlled by security forces in the town of Saada in the center of rugged mountain range.
Gunmen took hostage 28 foreign medical staff members from a hospital in Amran, north of Sanaa on Thursday and released them on Friday following tribal mediation, media reports said.
Huthi rebels were also blamed for that kidnapping.
“These staged kidnappings that we hear about these days are mere farces that would not fool anyone,” said a statement issued by the Huthi media office.
Foreigners are often kidnapped in Yemen by tribesmen to use as bargaining chips with the government over local disputes.
All have previously been freed unharmed, except for three Britons and an Australian seized by Islamist militants in December 1998 who were killed when security forces stormed the kidnappers’ hideout.
In April, a Dutch couple were held for two weeks by tribesmen to pressure the government to pay compensation for an incident involving a tribal chief and security forces.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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