2009 Yemeni tourist attacks

2009 Yemen tourist attacks
Location	Shibam, Yemen
Date	15 March 2009 (first attack) 18 March 2009 (second attack)
Target	South Korean tourists
Attack type	Suicide bombings
Deaths	5 (+2 perpetrators)
Injured	4
Perpetrators	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Two explosions targeting tourists in Yemen took place in mid-March 2009. Sixteen South Korean tourists were in Shibam, Yemen, at the time of the first blast. Four Korean tourists alongside their local Yemeni guide were killed in the first attack on 15 March, while three more tourists were injured. Relatives of the victims were involved in the second blast on 18 March but the only fatality was the bomber. The initial attack followed numerous calls by members of the Al-Qaeda military network to attack visitors in the region.

Background

AQAP was formed two months prior to the attack in a merger of al-Qaeda's branches in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia. Leaders of al-Qaeda in Yemen had frequently called upon attacks against non-Muslim foreigners within the Arabian Peninsula. The group had previously launched a suicide bombing killing Spanish tourists in Marib in July 2007 and an attack on a convoy of Belgian tourists travelling through Wadi Dawan in January 2008, the latter being approximately 2.5 miles from Shibam.

Shibam, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Yemen for its tall mud-brick buildings built in the 16th century.

15 March attack

The attack targeted a group of 16 South Korean tourists as well as two travel agency staff travelling through Shibam a via a convoy of jeeps. It occured as the convoy had reached the Khazzan hill which overlooks the city. While viewing the sunset from the hill, a teenager and a man in his early forties claiming to be his father approached the tourists and began a conversation with them. The teenager asked to be photographed with the tourists, to which they obliged. At around 5:50 p.m. AST (UTC+3), the teenager detonated an explosive belt while posing with the tourists in front of the cities buildings.

The blast killed four tourists, two men and two women, along with their Yemeni guide, and injured an additional four tourists.

18 March attack

The 18 March attack took place when a convoy of South Korean investigators and the relatives of the victims of the previous attack were journeying from their Sana'a hotel to an airport. A young man walked between two cars and detonated his explosive vest, killing himself. According to AFP, Yemeni security officials stated that they had found a fragment of the bomber's identity card. The fragment revealed his address and showed that he was a 20-year-old student.

See also

• 2007 Marib suicide car bombing
• List of terrorist incidents, 2009
• 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan