Hostage Survivors Leave Yemen

Ten survivors of a kidnapping ordeal in Yemen headed home Friday, ending a vacation that turned to tragedy when a bloody army rescue left four of their loved ones dead.

Nine Britons and an Australian who were held by Islamic extremists boarded a Paris-bound flight, a Yemeni official said on condition of anonymity. Another Briton, the tour leader who escaped as the abduction began Monday, joined them.

The bodies of the three Britons and the Australian who were killed in Tuesday's rescue operation were also on board, the official said.

Two more survivors, both American women, remained in Yemen. Mary Quin of Rochester, N.Y., was expected to leave Saturday for Frankfurt. The other, whose identity was not disclosed, remained hospitalized in the southern port city of Aden with a pelvis wound.

The group was seen off at the airport by British Ambassador Victor Henderson and Yemeni officials. Young girls in national costume presented the tourists with flowers before their departure.

The killings have shocked Yemen, where hospitality is held as a national virtue, even by kidnappers. In recent years, tribesmen seeking better roads or schools for their impoverished provinces have kidnapped scores of tourists, but released them unharmed after treating them as guests. Until Tuesday, no hostage had been killed.

It was the first kidnapping committed by Islamic extremists, officials said. The kidnappers were leading the hostages up to a mountain hideout a day after seizing them when government troops closed in on them and a shootout erupted.

The government said the troops acted after the kidnappers started killing the hostages. But some of the hostages said troops started the shooting and then the kidnappers started executing their captives.

The dead were identified as Ruth Williamson, 34, Peter Rowe, 60, and Margaret Whitehouse, 52, of Britain and Andrew Thirsk, 35, of Sydney, Australia.

Australia has sent a diplomat from the embassy in Saudi Arabia, which handles Yemen, to investigate the shoot-out. Scotland Yard investigators also are traveling to Yemen.

Interior Minister Hussein Mohammed Arab told reporters Thursday that the kidnappers had given government negotiators just an hour to release two jailed leaders before they said they would start killing hostages.

Arab also said the group to which the kidnappers belonged, the Islamic Jihad, was planning to bomb the British Consulate in Aden, a camp of American military experts, Aden International Airport, U.N. offices, churches and hotels.

Meanwhile, four Germans who were released Wednesday by their tribal kidnappers after three weeks in captivity were expected to fly home Saturday.

Written By AHMAD AL-HAJ