ADEN, 2 January 2006 — Yemeni tribesmen kidnapped five Italian tourists in the eastern province of Marib yesterday, one day after five German hostages were freed in the neighboring province of Shabwa.
The five Italian tourists were taken hostage by armed men from the powerful Jahm tribe in Marib, about 195 km northeast of the capital Sanaa, security officials told Arab News.
The kidnappers later released three Italian women, and said they would keep holding the two men until their demands were met, said local officials.
The identities of the Italian hostages remained unclear.
The kidnapping followed the release of five German hostages, including a former high-ranking diplomat, from captivity in eastern Yemen on Wednesday.
A security official in Marib told Arab News that a group of armed tribesmen from the Al-Zaidi tribe took the Italian group at gunpoint from the provincial city of Marib to the rugged mountainous area of Serwah.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the kidnappers were demanding the release of eight clansmen held by police over the killing of a military police officer in Sanaa in 2003.
The officer, Col. Abdul Wali Al-Qiri, was shot dead by tribesmen from the Jahm tribe, of which the Al-Zaidi is a branch.
Jahm chieftains have said the murder of the officer was in revenge to the 2002 killing of Sheikh Saleh ibn Ubad, one of the tribe’s leaders.
The kidnapping incident ironically coincided with tough remarks by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh that his government would wage a harsh campaign against the practice of kidnapping foreigners.
“We will wipe out this phenomenon from its roots with the same determination and seriousness we had when we fought the terrorist elements,” Saleh told reporters after a meeting with the freed German hostages Juergen Chrobog, 65, his wife and three adult sons in Aden. “It is a cowardly and irresponsible act,” he said. “Those who resort to kidnappings would not find sympathy or protection from anybody.”
At the meeting between Saleh and Chrobog, the Yemeni president said that “this behavior (kidnapping) is condemned by the government and the people alike. It is rejected, and those who committed it would be held accountable for it.”
