Seven Spanish tourists were killed and five others injured in a suicide car attack on a tourist convoy near an archaeological site in north-central Yemen Monday, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said, according to dpa. A Foreign Ministry statement, however, had put the number of dead Spaniards at six, adding that their Yemeni guide was also killed. Yemeni sources said a Yemeni tour guide and driver were killed, and two other Yemenis injured. The bodies and the injured were being taken to a hospital centre in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, Moratinos said, adding that the identities of the victims could not be confirmed until then. The Spanish ambassador to Yemen had reportedly travelled to the scene of the attack. The Basque travel agency that had organized the tourists' visit to Yemen said its representative was unable to accede the area. A Spanish plane was to fly to Yemen to take bodies and injured victims back home. "Initial information shows that the al-Qaeda organization was behind this cowardly terrorist attack," a statement by the Yemeni Interior Ministry said. The statement carried by the official Saba news agency said the attack occurred at 05:30 p.m. (1430 GMT), on four cars carrying Spanish tourists in Marib, about 190 kilometres north-east of Sana'a. "Four cars carrying 13 Spanish tourists were hit in a cowardly car bomb terrorist attack driven by a suicide terrorist," said the statement.
