Sana, Yemen – A suspected al-Qaeda suicide bomber on Monday plowed his car into a group of Spanish tourists visiting a temple linked to the ancient Queen of Sheba, killing seven Spaniards and two Yemenis in a part of Yemen known for lawlessness.
The attack came less than two weeks after the U.S. Embassy warned Americans to avoid the area, which until recent years was rarely visited by tourists because of frequent kidnappings of foreigners.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the attacker drove into the middle of a convoy transporting the Spanish tourists, killing seven and wounding five. Two Yemenis also died, according to Yemen’s Interior Ministry.
Witnesses reported seeing a car drive into the group of tourists on a road outside the site of the 3,000-year-old Queen of Sheba temple in the central province of Marib. The mangled remains of a four-wheel-drive vehicle could be seen on the side of a road, but it was unclear if the vehicle belonged to the bomber or the tourists.
The Queen of Sheba temple, which is known in Yemen by its Arabic name, Balqis, is about 85 miles east of the capital, Sana.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but authorities linked the suicide bomber to al-Qaeda. Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, and police said they had received information last month about a possible al-Qaeda attack. They did not elaborate.
