Yemen offers reward for kidnappers

The mortal remains of the three victims were transferred to Sanaa by a military helicopter yesterday ahead of repatriation to their home countries. Three women were found dead in northern Yemen this week, in a rare killing that comes as separatist and militant tensions intensify in a country whose instability has alarmed Western countries and neighbors. The reward of five million rials ($24,910) from Hassan Al-Manna, governor of Saada province where the nine were seized last week, was announced on state news agency Saba. Officials said the search was going on in districts of Nushur, Aushash, Al-Farea, Al-Kutaf and Al-Sadr, east of Saada. An influential tribal leader said hundreds of tribesmen and ordinary citizens were also participating in the search. Saba said on Monday the hree were part of a group of nine ? seven Germans, a Briton and a Korean ? that included three children and their mother, who were kidnapped last week in the mountainous Saada region. If the killing was carried out by tribal forces, it would mark the first time that women hostages have been victims. Two Belgian women, however, were killed in 2008 by gunmen in an ambush that authorities blamed on Al-Qaeda. Yemen has blamed the Houthi group for kidnapping the nine foreigners, a charge the Houthis denied. The first group of German investigators arrived in Sanaa yesterday to take part in the investigation being carried out by Yemeni authorities, a police official told Arab News. However, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said yesterday Germany ?has to assume? two German women taken hostage are dead. Steinmeier said the German Embassy in Sanaa had dispatched a staff member to northern Yemen where three dead bodies were recovered on Monday, near to the place where the nine hostages kidnapped last week were last seen. ?We unfortunately have to assume that two German women who had been missing are among the dead,? he told reporters in Berlin, Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.con for full version.