Foreigners kidnapped in Yemen

Foreigners kidnapped in Yemen

Nine foreigners have been kidnapped in northern Yemen days after Yemeni tribesmen released 24 hostages in a separate incident, officials have said.

Seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean were seized in the Saada region in the country's north, Yemeni officials said on Sunday.
There was no claim of responsibility for the kidnappings and further details were not immediately available.
The incident comes after Yemeni tribesmen released a group of 24 local and foreign medical workers they abducted from a hospital in the north of the country.
The doctors and nurses were released unharmed on Friday, after the tribesmen received assurances that two prisoners would be released in return.
The medics, most of whom were Yemenis but also included one Egyptian, two Indians and two Filipinos, had been abducted just one day earlier in the northern Saada region.
Saada was the site of an anti-government uprising led by members of the al-Houthi family in 2004.
The tribesmen cited alleged economic and religious discrimination as the reason for their armed campaign.
Tribesmen often kidnap Western tourists in Yemen to press the government into providing better services and living conditions.
Most foreigners abducted in Yemen are released unharmed, but in 2000 a Norwegian was killed in crossfire and in 1998 four Westerners were killed during a botched attempt to free them.
PHOTO CAPTION
File picture shows Yemeni security forces patroling a remote area in Saada province.
Al-Jazeera

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