March 2009 Yemen bombings

Two suicide bombings took place in March 2009, targeting South Korea nationals in Yemen. The first, which occurred on 15 March, targeted a group of South Korean tourists visiting the city of Shibam in Hadhramaut Governorate. The bomber detonated an explosive belt while posing for a picture with the tourists, killing four of them along with their Yemeni tour guide and injuring three others. On 18 March, another suicide bomber attempted to attack a convoy of South Korean investigators and relatives of the victims in Sanaa. However, the bombing failed and resulted in no casualties other than the perpetrator. Both attacks were claimed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The bombings followed numerous other attacks throughout the previous years against tourists and foreign interests in Yemen, primarily those belonging to the United States or European nations, perpetrated by the local al-Qaeda affiliate. It also followed the merger of the Yemeni and Saudi branches of al-Qaeda and the formation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in January 2009.^[1] In the video announcing its formation, AQAP leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi threatened attacks on Western nationals in the region. Field commander Mohammed al-Awfi was captured and extradited to Saudi Arabia the next month in what was considered a blow to the organization at the time.^[2]: 3

In early March 2009, an AQAP suicide bomber was ordered to conduct an attack in Shibam, Hadhramaut, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site renowned for its ancient mudbrick architecture which made it one of the largest tourist attractions in Yemen.^[3]: 241 The bomber was directed to wait atop a popular hill overlooking the town from which tourists commonly took photos, but was given no specific objective asides from attaining high casualties.^[3]: 241 Rather than a suicide vest, he was given "a rectangular, ten-centimetre-deep metal box" storing an explosive with a picture frame and painting depicting a waterfall bolted over it for concealment.^{[4][3]: 241–242}

On 15 March, the bomber waited atop the hill, known as Khazzan, observing any visitors, eventually encountering a group of South Korean tourists intending to take photographs of the old walled city at sunset.^{[5][3]: 242} The travel group, composed of 16 tourists and two travel agency staff, had arrived in Yemen on 9 March.^[6] Shibam was among the sightseeing destinations in the tour package due to the "scenic landscape and its relative safety." Only 13 of the 18 people in the group went while the others stayed at their hotel.^[7]

The bomber approached the tourists as they were taking photos and detonated his explosives.^[3]: 242 Official South Korean sources claim the explosion occurred at around 5:50 p.m. local time.^[8] Tour organizer Ma Kyong-Chan said the blast happened as most of the tourists had departed from their vehicles and were admiring the scene.^[5] Citing official sources, NewsYemen claimed the bomber had asked for a picture with the tourists and posed with them shortly before blowing himself up. He reportedly chewed khat before the bombing, which has effects similar to amphetamines, and tried to move children away from the vicinity.^[9]

The bombing killed four South Korean tourists and one Yemeni tour guide who had gone up to greet the bomber.^[3]: 242The tourists were identified as 70-year-old Park Bong-gan, 64-year-old Kim In-hye, and married couple Joo Yong-cheol (59 years old) and Shin Hye-yoon (55 years old), all residents of Seoul.^[10] Initial reports listed four tourists as being wounded but later revised the number to three.^[11] They were identified as 54-year-old Hong Sun-hee and 40-year-old Park Jeong-seon of Seoul, and Amman, Jordan, resident Sohn Jong-hee.^[10] One Yemeni was also injured.^[12]

Excluding the two travel agency staff, all 12 surviving tourists returned to South Korea through an Emirates flight, stopping in Dubai before arriving at Incheon International Airport in Seoul on 17 March.^[13] The bodies of those killed were received by their families at Incheon International Airport on 19 March.^[14]

A three-vehicle convoy containing a South Korean delegation sent in response to the first bombing was attacked in the capital of Sanaa on 18 March.^[3] The convoy was composed of a Yemeni police car at the front followed by one vehicle with foreign ministry secretary Jang Dae-kyo and senior advisor Lee Ki-cheol as well as Ma Kyung-chan, president of the travel agency, and a second vehicle with three relatives of the victims killed in the first bombing and foreign ministry employee Lee Myung-kwang. The group had left a Sheraton Hotel and was heading to Sanaa International Airport to depart from Yemen.^[15]

The bomber was positioned on the road by the gates of the al-Dailami Air Base, which is part of the airport, as he waited for the convoy.^[16][3] The convoy, which was due to arrive at the airport in around 10 minutes,^[17] had slowed down near the road to the airport.^[15][18] Upon spotting his target, at around 8:40 a.m. local time (2:40 p.m. KST) the bomber walked towards the convoy and blew himself up between the first and second vehicle.^[15][3] However, the perpetrator detonated his explosives seconds after the vehicles had passed and ended up missing them, harming nobody but himself and only causing minor damage to the front vehicle.^[17] The bereaved relatives later boarded their flight returning to South Korea on schedule.^[15]

The Yemeni government immediately launched an inquiry after the first bombing.^[12] In South Korea, an emergency government meeting headed by Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo was held to discuss the bombing.^[8] A team of four officials; two from the foreign ministry along with representatives from the National Police Agency and National Intelligence Service, was sent to Yemen.^[19] They arrived on 16 March and were involved in a basic investigation, including an inspection of the crime scene and interviews with Yemeni officials.^[20]

Some Yemeni officials initially cast doubt on the incident being a suicide bombing, suggesting it could have been caused by a pre-planted bomb or dynamite remnants.^[12][21] A security official eventually confirmed the attack was a suicide bombing perpetrated by AQAP on 16 March.^[21] Local authorities had arrested 12 members of jihadist groups who could have information on the perpetrators.^[22] The South Korean foreign ministry announced on 17 March that a Yemeni-led preliminary investigation, with involvement from South Korean authorities, determined the incident was a deliberate suicide bombing, but did not establish if the Koreans were specifically targeted.^[22]

Conflicting reports on the identity of the 15 March bombing's perpetrator had also emerged.^[23] The official Saba News Agency initially reported he had been "tricked by al-Qaeda into wearing an explosives vest". His remains and other shrapnel were found one kilometer from the site. Investigators recovered an identity card which indicated the bomber was Ali Mohsen al-Ahmad, born in 1990 in Sanaa.^[9] However, on 17 March a Yemeni official identified him instead as Abdel Rahman Mehdi al-Aajbari, an 18-year-old from Taiz who left his family home two months before the attack and had allegedly trained in Somalia for it.^[24][2]: 1 Propaganda released by AQAP confirmed the latter was the correct identity of the bomber.^[4]

The South Korean response team remained in Yemen even after the second bombing to continue the investigation into the first incident.^[15] A senior South Korean foreign ministry official said "It's too early to conclude the incidents as terrorist attacks against South Koreans, but the possibility remains high". Ministry spokesperson Moon Tae-young said "all possibilities" were being investigated in regards to the attacks.^[25] The team returned to South Korea on 22 March, and were set to present their results to the foreign minister the following day.^[20] On 24 March, a South Korean official announced the receival of interim investigation results from Yemeni authorities, which were not able to identify the perpetrators or whether South Koreans were deliberately targeted. The official said they were expecting "the possibility that the investigation will be considerably prolonged".^[26]

On 19 March, the Yemeni government-affiliated newspaper 26 September published the names and pictures of 12 individuals between the ages of 18 and 29 who were plotting further attacks for AQAP, offering rewards for information on them.^[27] On 25 March, authorities announced the arrest of six members of the 12-man cell accused of planning the two bombings along with 10 other plots against foreign and Western interests.^[28] By June, the Yemeni government had determined the attacks were "part of an al-Qaeda campaign to display its resilience and strength to the Western world."^[29]

AQAP claimed responsibility for the Shibam bombing through an internet message on 26 March.^[30] The group stated that they had targeted South Koreans due to their country's support for the war on terror.^[30] It also called the attack revenge for the killing of Hamza al-Quaiti, the leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Soldier's Brigade of Yemen, in August 2008.^[31] The group later claimed responsibility for the Sanaa bombing in April, claiming that the attack was meant to highlight the Yemeni government's inability to protect South Koreans.^[32]

An initial report on the attack from the state-ran Saba News Agency suggested that the bomber was "tricked into wearing an explosives vest."^[33] However, in their claim of responsibility, AQAP stated that the perpetrator "carried out a martyrdom-seeking operation" and referred to him as "Abu Obeida al-Jarrah."^[30][2]

Conflicting reports emerged of the bomber's identity,^[23] one report identifying him as Ali Muhsin al-Ahmad, a 19-year-old Yemeni from Taiz who travelled to Somalia in January to train for the attack. Before the attack, the bomber allegedly wrote a letter to his mother stating that his family would never see him again and that he was on the "true path."^[34][23]

South Korean foreign minister Yu Myung-hwan sent condolences to the victims of the attack and called for a thorough investigation into it during a phone call with Yemeni foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qurbi.^[35][36] The Ministry announced that it would issue a travel advisory across all of Yemen after the attack, urging its citizens to leave.^[37][19]

• 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan