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Al-Qaida Involvement?

Two German Nurses Probably Dead in Yemen

By Matthias Gebauer in San'a, Yemen

The German government now believes that two German nurses were among those found dead in Yemen. The fate of six other missing foreigners -- including an 11-month-old baby -- remains unclear. Officials are in a race against time.

The German government assumes the two German nurses Anita G., 24, and her 26-year-old colleague Rita S., are dead. After a number of confused reports on Monday, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier telephoned his colleague in Yemen and learned that Yemeni authorities had found three female bodies.

They're presumed to be the bodies of two German nurses and a South Korean teacher who were kidnapped while on an outing in the countryside of Saada, a northern region of Yemen known as a haven for Shia militias as well as al-Qaida fighters.

Like Johannes H., who has also gone missing, the nurses worked in a hospital in the town of Saada. The women were students from the Brake Bible School in the German town of Lemgo, which lies between Dortmund and Hannover. They arrived in Yemen in June, served an internship at the hospital, and worked -- also like Johannes H. -- for a Dutch-based aid organization called World Wide Services. The hospital internship was scheduled to last three months.

Foreign Minister Steinmeier said Tuesday that he now fears the remaining missing Germans have fallen "into the hands of unscrupulous and violent criminals. Our thoughts and compassions are with the victims, as well as their families and friends. In this difficult moment of grief we are with them."

Nevertheless, the identity of the two bodies has not yet been firmly established. On Tuesday morning a special team of six experts from the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) arrived in Yemen to conduct the first autopsies. The bodies of all three women were brought to the capital, San'a, for that purpose on Tuesday afternoon. They will be investgated by German as well as Yemeni authorities.

South Korea has already confirmed the death of the third woman -- a doctor positively identified her in Saada. The South Korean government, like the government in Berlin, has reacted with shock.

The other missing foreigners include Johannes H., his wife Sabine, 36, and their three children Lydia, Anna and the 11-month-old Simon. The South Korean woman and a British national were also abducted. A liaison officer from the BKA has travelled to Saada to coordinate a search. Because of the age of the baby, their efforts amount to a race against time.

Disappearing in a Difficult Region

The group vanished on Friday. The Yemeni military has been searching day and night with helicopters, but the region can prove difficult to access. The governor of Saada has meanwhile promised a reward of €20,000 for information leading to the kidnappers.

So far no demands have been made, and almost nothing suggests that it was a kidnapping for ransom, which is typical in Yemen. Local tribesmen, in the past, have been known to kidnap tourists to bargain for local development aid -- public wells or freshly paved streets, for example -- and the hostages are typically set free as soon as a deal is settled. Experts believe that this case is different.

The region of Saada, where the group was abducted, is known to be dangerous. Three months ago the German embassy in San'a warned Johannes H. against travelling there. For years Saada has seen skirmishes between the Yemeni military and Shiite rebels under the command of a cleric named Hussein al-Houthi.

Most foreigners have left the area because of the conflict. Why Johannes H. didn't heed the warnings is unclear. The 36-year-old has worked for years in Yemen and knew its hazards well.

Since yesterday, the German government has also considered the possibility of terrorist involvement. Al-Qaida has massively increased its presence in Yemen recently, and American intelligence services have long warned that al-Qaida fighters can move freely in Yemen and even train terrorist cells.

In March, four South Korean tourists were killed by a suicide bomb not far from the capital San'a. This attack has since been blamed on al-Qaida. But the involvement of the terrorist group in the current hostage case is still no more than a working hypothesis.