SANAA, 3 July 2007 — A suspected Al-Qaeda-linked suicide bomber killed nine people including several Spanish tourists yesterday when he drove his car into the site of the ancient Queen of Sheba temple in central Yemen, police officials said.
Seven of those killed were believed to be Spanish tourists, the officials at Yemen’s Interior Ministry said. Three Yemenis, including the suicide bomber, were also killed, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Seven other Spanish tourists were wounded in the blast, police said.
Witnesses reported seeing a car enter a gate before exploding at the site of the temple, which is known in Yemen by its Arabic name, Balqis. The temple, which is located in the central province of Marib about 140 kilometers east of Sanaa, was built about 3,000 years ago at the time of the ancient Queen of Sheba.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities linked the suicide bomber to Al-Qaeda. Police said they had received information last month about a possible Al-Qaeda attack. They did not elaborate.
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 Sanaa canceled travel to the two provinces “for the near future” and recommended that Americans avoid the area. Al-Qaeda has an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama Bin Laden, despite government efforts to fight the terror network. Al-Qaeda 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.
