Yemen Army Jet Crashes in Sanaa, Pilot Killed

Tribal gunmen kidnapped on Monday a Swiss man working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in southern Yemen, a local pro-government militia leader said.

The gunmen who belong to Al-Marakisha tribe kidnapped the man in the city of Jaar, in Abyan province, said Hussein al-Wahayshi, a local commander of the Popular Resistance Committees.

Gunmen from the same tribe briefly held two Indian ICRC staff last week.

Witnesses said the gunmen intercepted a car transporting the Swiss man and forced him to step out before they took him to an unknown destination.

Wahayshi said two Yemenis, including the driver, accompanying the Swiss man were ordered by the captors to leave. Gunmen beat them when they attempted to block the kidnapping, he added.

On Wednesday, armed tribesmen briefly held two Indian ICRC employees in Jaar and led them to a mountainous region, before they released them after Wahayshi's paramilitary group intervened.

Marakisha gunmen last Monday snatched two Egyptian technicians working at a cement factory in Abyan. They have not yet been released.

Hundreds of people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, almost all of who have been freed unharmed.

Most kidnappings of foreigners are carried out by members of Yemen's powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government.