SAN’A, Yemen — A government airstrike on what was believed to be an al-Qaida hide-out in a remote Yemen province accidentally killed a provincial councilman and his two bodyguards, a security official said today.
The incident sparked clashes between tribesmen protesting the deaths and police that claimed three more lives later today, a local Marib provincial official said.
Meanwhile, Yemeni tribesmen released two American tourists — a man and a woman — a day after they were kidnapped while traveling northwest of San’a. The pair, along with their driver, had been abducted by members of the Sharda tribe demanding the release of a jailed tribesman.
The U.S. Embassy said Yemeni security forces had surrounded the kidnappers and negotiated the release of the hostages. “The hostages have been relocated to the nation’s capital and the situation was peacefully resolved,” the embassy said in a statement.
Kidnappings are endemic in Yemen and are usually carried out by disgruntled tribesmen hoping to win concessions from the government. In the past few years, however, al-Qaida has begun kidnapping foreigners as well, often with lethal results.
The airstrike and the ensuing turmoil comes as Yemen is waging an aggressive campaign against al-Qaida, which has increased its footprint in this impoverished Arab nation in the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.
The security official said the strike late Monday night took place in the Wadi Obeida area in Marib province, about 107 miles south of the capital, San’a. The secretary-general of the Marib council, Sheikh Jabir bin al-Shabwani, and the two bodyguards were hit as they were driving home, he said.
As daylight came, tribesmen outraged over the deaths attacked government buildings in the area, blew up an oil pipeline and threatened to blow up the Marib oil facility, said the Marib official. He did not provide details on the three who died in the clashes.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s terror network, was formed more than a year ago when Yemen and Saudi militant groups merged.
Militants are believed to have built up strongholds in remote parts of the country, allying with powerful tribes that resent the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Washington has earmarked some $150 million in military assistance to the Yemeni government to help combat the threat with training, equipment and intelligence help.
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