Hundreds of Yemenis are rallying in a northern city, demanding the government arrest the kidnappers of nine foreigners who went missing last week.

Shepherds found the mutilated bodies of two German nurses and a South Korean teacher who were kidnapped while picnicking in an area of Yemen known as a hideout for al-Qaida.

NINE missing foreigners in Yemen, including three children, have been murdered, said a Yemeni official yesterday, apparently executed by their kidnappers in the impoverished nation in the Arabian peninsula where al-Qaida has a strong presence.

A MOTORCYCLE bomb exploded amid a crowd of worshippers leaving a mosque after Friday prayers in northern Yemen, killing at least 18 people and wounding about 45, government officials said.

Six Yemeni army and police troops were killed and 20 others injured in clashes in the past 24 hours with followers of a Yemeni Shiite rebel leader in the Saada province, a police statement said today.