January 8, 2010 - The Daily Star - Briton, Germans abducted in Yemen still alive, official confirms

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Hammoud Mounassar
Agence France Presse

SANAA: Five Germans, including three children, and a British national who have been held by kidnappers in Yemen for the past six months are still alive, a top official said on Thursday. “We have confirmed information that they are still alive. They are five Germans and a British national,” deputy prime minister for defence and security affairs, Rashad al-Aleemi, told a press conference.
“The three possible places they could be in are [the provinces of] Maarib, Al-Jouf and Saada,” he said.
“Available information confirm that there is coordination between the [northern Shiite rebels] Houthis and the Al-Qaeda in this matter,” he said.
“It is believed that the three children, who were shown in a recent video, are alive in Maarib, while the elders are being used by the Houthis [to provide] medical treatment,” Aleemi said.
The three children had resurfaced in a new video two weeks ago but the tape featured no sign of their parents. All were kidnapped in June.
At the time, Germany said it had no evidence that Al-Qaeda was behind the kidnapping.
German officials who requested anonymity had confirmed a report in the daily Bild saying the images, apparently recorded recently by the abductors indicated at least that the three children aged one, three and five were still alive.
The German government now has a copy of the video, Bild said in December.
“The children seemed exhausted,” a high-ranking German official was quoted by the newspaper as saying, as the German government declined to comment.
The family of five and the Briton were abducted in northern Yemen along with two German students and a South Korean who were shot dead.
The announcement comes as government forces chase Al-Qaeda cells after the network’s franchise in the impoverished country claimed responsibility for the botched Christmas Day attack on a US airliner.
The Yemeni government had repeatedly accused the Houthi rebels of being behind the kidnappings, a charge they denied saying that the government was behind the abduction to use it as an excuse to attack the rebels.
Since August, the army has been engaged in an all-out offensive against the Zaidi Shiite rebels in the Saada Province and its surroundings, in a bid to end their five-year rebellion.
Abductions of foreigners are a frequent occurrence in Yemen as tribesmen often use them to twist the government’s arm in local disputes. More than 200 foreigners have been abducted over the past 15 years.
All have been freed unharmed, except for three Britons and an Australian seized by Islamist militants in December 1998 who were killed when security forces stormed the kidnappers’ hideout.
In April, a Dutch couple were held for two weeks by tribesmen to pressure the government to pay compensation for an incident involving a tribal chief and security forces.