2008 attack on tourists in Yemen

2008 Yemen tourist attack
Location Hadhramaut, Yemen
Date January 18, 2008 (UTC+3)
Target Belgian Tourists
Attack type
Ambush
Deaths 5
Non-fatal injuries
4
Perpetrators Unknown, possibly Al-Qaeda

The 2008 Yemen tourist attack was an ambush attack on Belgian tourists traveling in a convoy through Hadhramaut in the Wadi Dawan desert valley on January 18, 2008.

Details

A convoy of four jeeps carrying 15 tourists to Shibam were ambushed by gunmen in a hidden pickup truck.[1] Two Belgian women, Claudine Van Caillie, of Bruges, 63, and Katrine Glorie, from East Flanders, 54, as well as two Yemenis, a driver and a guide, were killed; another man was also heavily wounded, several others suffered minor wounds.[2] The tourists were repatriated to Belgium on January 19, except the injured man, who remained in Sanaa.[3]

In the wake of the attack, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karel De Gucht originally rejected that Al-Qaeda might be responsible, explaining that although the possibility could be avoided, internecine disputes and latent Islamism also to be taken into account.[2] A number of arrests were made on January 21.[4]

Reactions

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