Yemen vows to hunt down kidnappers

Yemen vowed yesterday to hunt an armed group behind the killing of three foreign hostages and offered a reward of €18,000 for information leading to the capture of the kidnappers.

Three women from a party of nine kidnapped foreigners were found dead in Yemen this week in a rare killing coinciding with a rise in separatist and militant tensions in a country whose instability has alarmed Western countries and Saudi Arabia.

One analyst said the killings bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda but no claim of responsibility has been made.

"The security apparatus will continue to hunt the terrorist group which committed this crime and bring them to justice," Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said.

The reward of five million rials from the governor of Saada province where the nine were seized last week, was announced on the state news agency, Saba. It said authorities were searching for the remaining hostages but gave no further details.

Saba said on Monday the three 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 northern Saada region bordering Saudi Arabia.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the killings.

"We must unfortunately assume that two of the three people found dead in Yemen were German women doing work experience. It is very sad news and we strongly condemn (the killings)," Mrs Merkel said.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said German experts were sent to Yemen to help identify the victims. "At the moment the circumstances of the death of both women is unclear," he said.

The two German women were students at a German bible school who were carrying out work experience at a hospital in Saada, the school said on its website.

"They had decided to carry out an internship in Yemen because of their strong social and pastoral engagement," the school said. "We received the news of the death of our students, Anita G. and Rita S., with deep dismay."

A source told Reuters on Sunday that one of the German captives was a doctor at a hospital which the other Germans were visiting. The Briton is an engineer and the South Korean was working with an aid agency.

Yemen last week arrested a man described as al Qaeda's top financer in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is struggling with a revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and growing al Qaeda militancy.

The unrest has raised concerns Yemen could slip into chaos and provide a base for al Qaeda or pirates operating in the Indian Ocean.