Three US doctors killed in Yemen

Three American doctors were shot dead today in the missionary hospital where they worked in Yemen, security officials said.

The gunman, a suspected Muslim fundamentalist, was arrested after the attack at Jibla’s Maaden Hospital. One of those killed was the hospital director. The other two were both female doctors.

A fourth American, the hospital’s pharmacist, was seriously injured in the shooting, the officials said.

The attacker entered the hospital hiding a semiautomatic rifle under his jacket to make it look like a child and then opened fire, killing the three doctors instantly.

He then headed to the hospital’s pharmacy and shot and wounded the pharmacist, they said.

Jibla, in Ibb province, is about 125 miles south of the capital San‘a.

A US embassy official there condemned the attack and advising Americans in the country to enhance their security.

Impoverished, factionalised Yemen has for years been a haven for wanted Muslim extremists and is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida terror chief Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden enlisted thousands of Yemenis to fight alongside the mujahedeen of Afghanistan in their US-backed war against an occupation Soviet army in the 1980s. Many returned to Yemen when the Soviets withdrew, and they are a powerful political force.

On October 6, an explosives-laden boat rammed a French oil tanker off the Yemen coast, killing one member of the tanker’s crew, tearing a hole in the vessel and spilling some 90,000 barrels of oil.

An intelligence official in Washington has said US experts believed the attack on the Limburg was the work of unspecified operatives with links to al-Qaida.

Statements attributed to bin Laden and his network’s “political bureau” hailed the explosion on the tanker but would not confirm al-Qaida’s responsibility.

The attack recalled the October 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole, which was rammed by a small, explosives-laden boat in the southern port of Aden.

Seventeen US sailors were killed in that attack, which was blamed on al-Qaida. Yemen has signed on as Washington’s partner in the war on terrorism launched after the September 11 attacks.

In November, a CIA-operated Predator drone fired a missile that killed bin Laden’s top lieutenant in Yemen, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, and five other al-Qaida suspects in Yemen.

The Americans have trained Yemeni troops to fight militants, and Yemen allows US warships free use of its waters and US warplanes use of its air space.

Yemeni security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say up to 3,000 US-trained Yemeni troops have been deployed recently in areas known to harbour wanted al-Qaida members.