YEMEN
Seven German kidnapped by rebels

New Kidnappingfall in Yemen: According to official figures have been kidnapped in the north of the country's seven German and two other foreigners. Point during the hostage-takers they are Shiite rebels, said the Defense Ministry in Berlin Sanaa.In a crisis team was set up.

Sanaa - The group of nine people had been missing, now the Yemeni Defense Ministry said on its website that foreigners have been kidnapped.

The kidnappers were Shiite rebels. According to the state news agency SABA, the kidnappers belong to the Shiite rebel group led by Abdul Malik al-Houthi. The group had been kidnapped in the northern part of the desperately poor country on the Arabian Peninsula. The group according to the report includes seven German, a Briton and a South Korean teacher.

Point during the German is a couple, three children and two nurses, the ministry said in a statement, citing officials in the region of Saada on. The nine foreigners were members of an international organization, which operates a hospital in the same town of Saada.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Berlin confirmed SPIEGEL ONLINE on Sunday, there were seven German citizens in Yemen miss. A crisis team was set up.

No demands of the kidnappers known

The exact date of the abduction is still unclear, it said in the meantime, reports from Sanaa. Claims had not been previously made. Saada is about 200 kilometers north of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

The group went missing the day before. It was initially unclear whether this was a kidnapping. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said on Sunday that the German embassy in Sanaa am in "close contact" with the local authorities. Still, the circumstances were unclear.

Last Thursday hijackers were on the streets of the capital Sanaa to Saada already taken a bus with 22 people in its violence, including 14 foreign employees is one of the hospitals of Saada. The 14 doctors and nurses from India, Egypt, Sudan and the Philippines and their family members arrived on Friday again.

Only in January was also a German engineer in Yemen two days of hostage-takers had been detained. In mid-December were kidnapped three German in Yemen. The aid worker and her parents came a few days again.
In the past 15 years in the country more than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped by different tribes. Often this involves discussions with the government, in other cases to the hostage-takers press release imprisoned members of the tribe. The abductions are usually made for the hostages unscathed.

[From Yemen: Seven German kidnapped by rebels - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International ]