Yemen offers reward for tips on kidnappers
SANAA, Yemen - Yemen pledged yesterday to hunt down an armed group behind the killing of three foreign hostages and offered a reward of $275,000 for information leading to the capture of the kidnappers.
Three women from a party of nine kidnapped foreigners were found dead in Yemen this week in a rare killing coinciding with a rise in separatist and militant tensions in a country whose instability has alarmed Western countries and Saudi Arabia.
One analyst said the killings bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda but no claim of responsibility has been made.
“The security apparatus will continue to hunt the terrorist group which committed this crime and bring them to justice,’’ Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi told Reuters.
State media said the Interior Ministry added $249,100 to a reward of $24,910 offered earlier by the governor of Saada Province where the nine were seized last week. Security measures were stepped up there and police were searching for the remaining hostages, media reports said.
The nine included seven Germans, a Briton, and a Korean, according to state media, and included three children and their mother. They were kidnapped in the mountainous northern Saada region bordering Saudi Arabia.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the killings.
