SANAA, 23 December 2005 — Efforts by tribal leaders to clinch a deal with kidnappers of the two Austrian tourists in northeastern Yemen failed and security officials were sent to the area for final negotiations, local officials said yesterday.
The officials said tribal leaders assigned by Marib Province Governor Abdullah Al-Nassi to secure the releases of the Austrian tourists could not make contacts with the kidnappers.
“Mediators could not speak with the abductors. They met with leaders of the tribe to which the kidnappers belong,” a provincial official told Arab News, seeking anonymity.
The pair were snatched by armed tribesmen on Tuesday while driving on a jeep in a desert area near Al-Hatik town, some 15 kilometers east of the provincial city of Marib.
Police officials have said the abductors demanded the release of three tribesmen detained by police in Sanaa.
They said the tribesmen were arrested two months ago at Sanaa Airport after arriving from Syria and suspected to have been fighting alongside insurgents in Iraq.
“They are being held on suspicion they came back from Iraq through Syria,” one police official said.
Security was beefed up in Marib, some 195 kilometers northeast of Sanaa, and police vehicles were seen patrolling the streets.
