Seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into their convoy at an ancient temple in Yemen on Monday, officials said. The interior ministry said the bombing in the restive northeastern region of Marib appeared to be the work of the Al-Qaeda network. "Preliminary information indicates that the Al-Qaeda organisation is behind the cowardly attack," an interior ministry official told the Saba news agency. "This criminal attack has killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni nationals who worked as drivers and tourist guides, and wounded six Spanish tourists and two (Yemeni) nationals."
Witnesses told AFP the attack occurred as the tourists were wrapping up a tour of a temple in Marib which dates back 3,000 years to the time of the biblical Queen of Sheba.
The ministry official said the convoy which was carrying 13 tourists was attacked by an "explosives-laden car driven by a suicide terrorist." In Madrid, an official had said earlier that six Spanish tourists had been killed and seven others injured in the attack. Witnesss said the blast took place around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) in Marib, 170 kilometres (about 106 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, an area rich in archeological treasures and popular with tourists.