Four S. Korean tourists killed in Yemen bomb blast

(ATTN: UPDATES with ministry's designation of Yemen as travel restriction zone,
other details; CHANGES headline)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, March 16 (Yonhap) -- Four South Koreans traveling in southern Yemen were
killed and four others were wounded in what appears to be a terrorist bomb attack
on Sunday night (Seoul time), South Korea's foreign ministry said Monday.
The explosion occurred at around 11:50 p.m. in the southern city of Syoun and if
confirmed to be a terrorist attack, it would mark the latest targeting foreigners
in the Arab nation known as a center of militant activity by al-Qaida and other
extremists, according to the ministry.
It said the South Korean victims included two men and two women, all of whom were
on a group tour. Their Yemeni guide was also killed. The four wounded Koreans
were sent to Syoun Hospital but they are not in a critical condition, a ministry
official said. Ten other South Korean tourists in the group moved to their hotel
to prepare to fly back home, shortly after the bombing.
The bomb exploded while the tourists were taking pictures at sunset near the
fortress city of Shibam, a United Nations-designated World Heritage site. No
organization has openly claimed responsibility for the explosion yet.
"We are still trying to find the exact cause of the incident and related
developments," said Kim Yu-chul, director of the ministry's department handling
accidents involving South Koreans abroad.
The government called an emergency meeting of related agencies, chaired by Vice
Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo, on Monday morning to discuss the incident.
The meeting involved officials from the presidential office, the prime minister's
office, the state intelligence agency, and police.
"The foreign ministry separately formed a task force to gather information on the
bombing and consult with the Yemeni authorities on the transfer of the bodies of
the victims," the official said. The ministry is also taking measures to support
the planned visit by bereaved families to Yemen, he added.
Meanwhile, the ministry has designated the entire Yemen as a "travel restriction
area," which strongly advises its people not to travel there.
Earlier, such a measure had affected only a few cities in the Middle East nation
known as the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
His group has attacked and killed Westerners in the country on several occasions,
including the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the port of Aden
that killed 17 American sailors.
Yemeni security officials told foreign news agencies that Sunday's bombing was
probably a terrorist attack but they added it could have been caused by remnants
of dynamite.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)