Saudi Arabia's deputy consul was kidnapped on his way to work Wednesday in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, a Yemeni security official said. The gunmen snatched Abdullah Al-Khalidi as he was about to get into his car and they sped off with him in another vehicle, police in the city's Mansoura District said. A Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the abduction, saying: “It happened this morning. The embassy already contacted the highest security authority in Yemen. They are investigating and trying to find out the reason.” It was the first kidnapping of a Saudi diplomat in Yemen, where abductions are frequent and where armed tribesmen and Al-Qaeda-linked militants take hostages in an effort to swap them for prisoners or cash. Security in the country's second city, and in southern Yemen generally, has deteriorated during the political turmoil that began with mass protests against then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh in early 2011, and saw fighting among pro- and anti-Saleh factions of the military as well as tribal militias. It was not clear whether the abduction had any political motives. Saudi Arabia and the rest of Gulf Cooperation Council countries were heavily involved in a power-transfer deal that forced Saleh to relinquish power after a yearlong turmoil and mass protests against his rule.
