On Sept. 19, two oil workers from Colombia and their Yemeni assistants
were abducted by tribes. Yemeni sources said the men were kidnapped on their
way to work for the Yemeni Liquefied Natural Gas Co. in the Shabwa province.
No tribe has yet claimed responsibility for the abduction. But the
sources said the mostly likely suspect was the Ba Kazem tribe.
Al Qaida has also attacked the foreign oil presence in Yemen. The
sources said in some cases Yemeni tribes coordinated with Al Qaida to
identify targets.
The regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh has sought to protect the
foreign oil presence. The Interior Ministry has promised to bolster troops
and police near oil wells and foreign camps.
The abduction threat was disclosed in wake of the Al Qaida strike on the
U.S. embassy in Sanaa, in which 17 people were killed, six of them
attackers. Authorities have arrested 25 suspects since the Sept. 17 strike.
One of the detainees was identified as Abu Al Ghaith Al Yamani, leader
of Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S.
embassy. Al Yamani, linked to Al Qaida, was said to have threatened foreign
embassies in Yemen.
