SANAA: Armed tribesmen kidnapped a Dutch couple in the Yemeni capital Sanaa yesterday. The hostages were unharmed, the Dutch Embassy in Sanaa confirmed.
"Yes, two Dutch persons were kidnapped today, and they are in a good shape," an embassy official said.
The official, who asked not to be named, refused to provide further details about the attack.
Sanaa Gov. Noman Dwaid said security authorities had located the area where the hostages were being held east of Sanaa.
"Urgent measures were taken to secure the safety and release of the two tourists," Dwaid said in remarks published on the website of the ruling party.
The sources said the couple were abducted at gunpoint from a suburb in the south of the city by tribesmen by a little-known clan called Al-Seraj.
Dwaid said the kidnappers moved their hostages to Bani-Dhabian, a mountainous area about 80 km east of Sanaa.
The kidnappers' demands were not immediately clear. The kidnapping is the third involving foreigners in Yemen this year.
On Jan. 18, tribesmen abducted a German oil expert in the southeastern Yemeni province of Shabwa and released him two days later. The kidnappers demanded the release of a jailed fellow tribesman.
On Jan. 3, tribesmen seeking the release of a jailed fellow clansman took a South African tourist and her two sons hostage for one day in the southern province of Abyan, but later released them unharmed.
