SANAA: An Al-Qaeda wing in Yemen yesterday claimed responsibility for the attack that killed four South Korean tourists in southeastern Yemen this month, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of two militant leaders in a police raid.
In a statement posted on the Internet, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said the March 15 attack in Hadramaut province was intended to avenge the killing of leading Al-Qaeda members in Yemen Hamza Al-Quaiti and Abdullah Ba-Tais in a police sting operation last August.
A suicide bomber blew himself in the historic city of Shibam on March 15, killing four South Korean tourists and their Yemeni guide.
Authorities blamed the attack on Al-Qaeda. Officials have said a second attack that targeted South Korean investigators in Sanaa three days later was also the work of Al-Qaeda.
The statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, said the attack was carried out also in response to “South Korea’s role in the war on Islam as it allied with crusader forces under the guise of a war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq.” It named the Shibam attacker with his alias Abu-Obaida Al-Jarrah. Authorities have identified the attacker as the 18-year-old Abdul-Rahman Mahdi Al-Ujairi.
South Korea, a close US ally, sent 3,600 engineering and medical troops to Iraq in 2004, providing the third largest foreign troop presence in the war-battered country at the time. In December it completed its troop withdrawal, ending a four-year mission in Iraq.
Seoul also sent medical and engineering troops to Afghanistan but pulled its 210 soldiers out in 2007 after 23 South Korean aid workers were taken hostage by the Taleban.
Yemen’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that police forces had arrested six suspected Al-Qaeda militants who were plotting 12 attacks on oil installations, foreign interests and tourists in the country.
