(AKI) - A gunman shot and killed a Yemeni Jew in the Raydah district in northern Yemen, security sources said on Friday. Thirty-nine year-old Mousa Yaish al-Nahari, a father of eight, was reportedly shot for no reason, said Yahya Mousa, a rabbi for Yemeni Jews in the capital Sanaa.
| The gunman approached al-Nahari and told him "Jew, accept Islam's message" and then shot him five times. |
Arab media said the gunman was identified as Abdul-Aziz Yahya al-Abdi, a former air force pilot. He was arrested in Raydah in the Amran governorate.
Police are still investigating the motive of the crime, but witnesses say the gunman approached al-Nahari and told him "Jew, accept Islam's message" and then shot him five times with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Al-Abdi is alleged to have murdered his wife two years ago but was not jailed because he agreed to pay compensation to the wife's family, said Pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat.
Ahmed al-Sarihi, a security official, told the daily that al-Abdi was a religious extremist that suffered from mental problems and that during interrogation he admitted killing al-Nahari and telling police that "these Jews must convert to Islam."
Although Yemen is overwhelmingly Muslim, a small community of 300-400 Jews still live there. Since 1949 about 50,000 members of the once-thriving Yemeni Jewish community are reported to have been secretly airlifted to Israel. |