Target South Korean tourists Perpetrators Al-Qaeda Location Shibam, Yemen Attack type Suicide attack | Non-fatal injuries 4 Start date March 15, 2009 Perpetrator Al-Qaeda Location Shibam | |
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Deaths 6 (including the perpetrators) Similar 2008 attack on tourists in Yemen, 2007 attack on tourists in Yemen, 2014 Rada' bombings, 2014 Ibb bombing, January 2015 Sana'a b | ||
Two explosions targeting tourists in Yemen took place in mid-March 2009. Sixteen South Korean tourists were in Shibam, Yemen, at the time of the first blast. Four Korean tourists alongside their local Yemeni guide were killed in the original attack on 15 March, while three more tourists were injured. Relatives of the victims were involved in the second blast on 18 March; however, the perpetrator succeeded only in killing himself. The initial attack followed numerous calls by members of the Al-Qaeda military network to attack visitors in the region.
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15 March attack
The 15 March blast took place when a series of tourists were posing for photographs on a hill overlooking Shibam. Three were injured.
18 March attack
The 18 March attack took place when a convoy of South Korean investigators and the relatives of the victims of the previous attack were journeying from their Sana'a hotel to an airport. A young adult man walked between two cars and detonated his explosive vest, killing no one except himself. According to AFP, Yemeni security officials stated that they had found a fragment of the bomber's identity card. The fragment revealed his address and showed that he was a 20-year-old student.