SANAA, May 29, (Agencies): Yemen is hunting 60 suspects allegedly involved in kidnapping foreigners, the interior ministry said on Saturday, just days after two American tourists were snatched and then released by armed tribesmen.
The suspects, some of whom are wanted for abductions that took place more than 10 years ago, are on a wanted list that includes 65 others suspected of kidnapping Yemenis, a source at the ministry told AFP.
Another 140 suspects have been arrested, most of whom have already been tried, the ministry said in a statement.
Yemen’s security forces have been engaged since mid-2008 in a “relentless war against abductions and those responsible for them... the kidnappers being as dangerous as terrorists,” the ministry added.
The latest kidnapping took place on May 24, when two Americans and their driver were seized near a popular tourist attraction around 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Sanaa, with the kidnappers hoping to exchange them for a jailed fellow tribesman.
They were released the following day, though it was not clear whether this was a result of any deal.
Yemen’s powerful tribes often kidnap foreigners for use as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government. Of about 200 foreigners seized in Yemen over the past decade, almost all have been released unharmed.
Separatists ambushed two convoys of Yemen’s armed forces, killing three soldiers and wounding 11 others, the Defence Ministry website said on Friday.
Separately, the Yemeni government reached an agreement with the kinsmen of a mediator killed in a pre-dawn air strike earlier this week, after a series of clashes with Yemeni armed forces, a government official told Reuters.
Two soldiers were killed when their vehicle flipped over as separatists ambushed their convoy traveling through the southern province of Raha, the Defence Ministry website said. Eleven others were wounded.
Another vehicle was ambushed by separatists in the southern area of Jebeil Shams, killing one soldier, the website said.
North and South Yemen formally united in 1990 but many in the south, where most of impoverished Yemen’s oil facilities are located, complain northerners have used unification to seize their resources and discriminate against them.
Yemen became a major Western security concern after the Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound plane in December.
Western allies and neighbouring oil exporter Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda is exploiting Yemen’s instability to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.
The cash-strapped Yemeni government is almost powerless to meet the needs and demands of most of its people in a heavily armed society that is growing increasingly discontent and sometimes takes its struggles to the street.
In the southern Ma’arib province, the government made a deal with the tribe related to Jaber al-Shabwani, the deputy governor of the southern province.
Tribal sources said the government sent them a gift of compensation for the loss of Shabwani, including 200 machineguns, a land cruiser and 5 million Yemeni rial ($22,830).
The tribal custom ended a conflict with the government. Shabwani’s kinsmen previously threatened a “harsh response” if the government did not announce the results of its inquiry into the raid that killed Shabwani and four of his entourage.
Upon hearing of the strike, tribesmen clashed with government forces and attacked an oil pipeline to the capital Sanaa. They are now allowing repairs to the pipeline, a government official said.