 Yemeni authorities are negotiating for the release of two remaining Italian hostages after tribesmen freed three Italian women hours after seizing the group of tourists on Sunday, officials say. The kidnapping of the five Italians, which followed days after the abduction of five Germans, prompted the sacking of governors in the two provinces where the Western tourists were seized.
The Italians' kidnapping came hours after Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, pledged to eradicate abductions in the poor Arab country, and a day after five German hostages were freed unharmed by tribesmen who had held them for three days.
| That's a project he should have started about 20 years ago... |
A security official said on Sunday: "Negotiations have started towards the peaceful release of the two remaining Italian men. Tribesmen stopped the vehicle the tourists were travelling in and abducted them." He said troops were also being deployed in the remote mountainous Marib province, where the five were kidnapped by al-Zaidi tribesmen demanding that eight tribe members held on criminal charges be freed. |