Gunmen opened fire on a tourist convoy Friday afternoon in the eastern Hadramawt region, killing two Belgian women and two Yemeni drivers, Yemeni officials said. The attack was the first aimed at foreigners in Yemen since last summer, when a suicide car bomber attacked a group of tourists visiting a temple in central Yemen, killing eight Spaniards and two Yemenis. The Yemeni state news agency identified the Belgian women as Klaudi Klawy and Catharine Glory. One of the drivers was identified as Ahmed al Amiri. Their bodies were being flown back to the capital Friday night.The attack took place in the Wadi Dawan district, about 180 miles east of Sanaa. Four gunmen waiting in a pickup truck near a speed bump along a rural road ambushed a four-car tourist convoy, said a tourist official who asked not to be identified. Two Belgians and one Yemeni were also wounded. The attackers then
The area where the attacks occurred, near a famous group of ancient multistory mud dwellings in the town of Shibam, is not considered especially dangerous. There have been kidnappings in the area, but they have subsided in recent years after a government crackdown.