Sana'a, Yemen - The nine foreigners kidnapped in Yemen
ignored warnings by the country's authorities not to leave secure
areas without security escorts, Interior Minister Mutahar Rashad al-
Masri said Saturday.
'Five days before the kidnap, security bodies sent a warning to
the German doctors that they should not move without a security
escort,' the minister said.
'The remaining Germans in the hospital said they actually received
the warning,' he added.
A German family of five and the British engineer were taken at
gunpoint along with two German theology students and a South Korean
teacher while on a weekend excursion in the restive province of Saada
on June 12.
Some of the hostages had been working for a local hospital in
Saada, on the border with Saudi Arabia, some 240 kilometres north-
west of the capital Sana'a.
Three days after the kidnapping, the bullet-riddled bodies of the
two German women and the South Korean woman were found in Akwan in
the Wadi Nushur area east of Saada. Wadi Nushur is close to al-Jawf
province, where al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have a presence.
'Although they did not abide by the security instructions, this
(kidnapping) is unjustified and unforgivable crime,' al-Masri said.
He said that 'no bodies for any of the six captives were found,
and there is a possibility that they are still alive,' and that
Yemeni authorities were considering 'all possibilities' as they try
to find them.
Al-Masri reiterated accusations pointing to the al-Houthi Shiite
rebel group for the kidnapping, a charge the group vehemently denies.
'Who is the beneficiary of such a terrorist act, they are the
Houthis, who want to harm Yemen's image,' al-Masri said, while
adding, 'though all possibilities are open.'
He said if al-Houthis were not the perpetrators, 'they must have
provided the kidnappers with assistance.'
'Whoever they are, those criminals will not go unpunished,' he
said.
The minister said that further details on the case could not be
provided as the search was still going on for the six hostages whose
fate remained unclear.
Kidnapping has been rampant in Yemen for nearly two decades. This
time, however, the methods and the degree of brutality are different.
No tribal or political group has yet claimed responsibility or
made demands.
A massive search operation by the security and army forces, backed
by thousands of tribesmen and ordinary people, is hindered by the
ongoing conflict between government forces and the al-Houthi group.
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