Qaeda says hit Koreans in Yemen over U.S. ties-web

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

DUBAI, March 27 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's wing in Yemen said it carried out the suicide attack that killed four South Korean tourists this month in retaliation for their country's ties to the U.S.-led "war on terror", according to an Internet message.

South Korea, which once had the third-largest contingent of foreign soldiers in Iraq, withdrew all of them in December. On Friday, a Korean newspaper quoted a top government official as saying Seoul had decided to send about 1,000 mainly engineering troops to Afghanistan in response to an unofficial U.S. request.

Yemen has blamed al Qaeda for the March 15 bombing that killed the four tourists and for a failed suicide attack days later against South Korean agents investigating the blast.

Violence in Yemen has affected Western and other foreign firms developing its oil and gas sector, and attacks on foreigners including kidnappings by tribesmen have hit tourism in the poor Arab country, diplomats say.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSLR144076