SANAA: A suicide bomber attacked a group of South Korean tourists in southern Yemen yesterday, killing four of them and injuring four others, an official said.
The official said authorities were investigating the incident in the city of Shibam in the southern province of Hadramout and trying to identify those behind it.
The attack took place as the tourists visited the city dubbed the “Manhattan of the Desert”, which boasts the world’s oldest skyscrapers dating back to the 16th century, another official said.
“According to a preliminary toll, the explosion killed four South Korean tourists and wounded four more, as well as a Yemeni man,” one official told AFP by telephone from Shibam.
Asked if the explosion was an attack, one official said earlier: “Maybe it was a terrorist attack, but it could also be remnants of dynamite from a mine going off.” A security official said the blast came as the tourists were photographing the sunset.
“The explosion happened as they were gathered on a hill called Khazzan that overlooks the city. They were on foot and taking pictures of the buildings in Shibam at the moment the sun went down,” he added.
Shibam, some 800 kilometers southeast of Sanaa, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site well known for its high-rise mud-brick buildings.
“Its impressive tower-like structures rise out of the cliff and have given the city the nickname of the Manhattan of the Desert’,” the UNESCO World Heritage website says.
In January 2008 two Belgian tourists were shot dead along with their local guide and driver in Hadramout.
Two months later, the US Embassy was the target of mortar fire which missed and hit a school, killing two people.
A car bomb attack in Marib, also east of Sanaa, in July 2007 killed eight Spanish holidaymakers and two Yemeni drivers. That attack took place at the entrance to Mahram Bilqis, an ancient oval-shaped temple which legend says belonged to the Biblical Queen of Sheba.
The US embassy in the capital was targeted last September by a double car bomb attack claimed by Al-Qaeda that killed 19 people, including seven attackers.
Separately, authorities said they had arrested Abdullah Al-Harbi, a Saudi man who was on a list of 85 suspected militants issued by Saudi Arabia in February.
Yemen arrested Al-Harbi for links to Al-Qaeda as part of a search operation for 116 suspects, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.
He was arrested in Taez south of the Yemeni capital during an operation by security forces, the ministry said in a statement.
His arrest came a few days after pictures were released of the suspects wanted in Yemen, the statement said. It did not elaborate.
