S. Koreans targeted in 2d Yemen attack

Bomber strikes investigators headed to airport

Investigators searched yesterday for evidence at the site of a suicide bombing that targeted a South Korean delegation. (KHALED FAZAA/AFP/Getty Images)

SAN'A, Yemen - A suicide bomber yesterday struck a convoy carrying South Korean officials sent to Yemen to investigate a bombing that killed four tourists from the country on Sunday.

The well coordinated attack was specifically designed to target the South Koreans, officials said. The suicide bombing on Sunday killed four South Korean tourists and their Yemeni driver at a historical site. No one was hurt in yesterday's attack, officials said.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack and said the convoy was also carrying relatives of the victims of Sunday's attack. They were in the country to recover the victims' bodies and were headed to the airport to return to South Korea when the bomber struck.

Yemen, an impoverished country in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, is Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland and has long been a center of militant activity.

A Yemeni security official said South Korea's ambassador to the country was also in the convoy hit yesterday, but in Seoul, the Foreign Ministry denied that.

The bomber walked into the road between two of the vehicles and blew himself up as the convoy was traveling to the airport outside the capital, San'a, the Yemeni official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. The blast shattered the windows of the vehicles.

Yemeni authorities said Al Qaeda was behind Sunday's suicide bombing near the ancient fortress city of Shibam and that 12 suspects were arrested.

After that attack, South Korea instructed its overseas diplomatic missions to strengthen security measures and said it would set up a body to consult with Middle East countries and other nations prone to attacks to exchange information on terrorism.

The South Korean ambassador met later yesterday with Yemen's foreign and interior ministers.

At a briefing in Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood called the two attacks "very troubling."

The US Embassy in Yemen yesterday said on its website that embassy personnel had been advised to limit their travel and warned American citizens in the country to exercise caution.