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2007 Marib bombing
Suicide car bombing in Yemen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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On 2 July 2007, at around 14:30 GMT, a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into a convoy of 13 Spanish tourists finishing a visit at the Queen of Sheba temple in Marib Governorate, Yemen. The bomber, Abdu Mohammed Saad Ahmed Rehaqah, was recruited and trained to drive the car bomb by members of al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had published an online message a week prior to the bombing demanding that the Yemeni government release imprisoned militants.
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Rehaqah drove the bomb into the two vehicles in the center of the convoy used by the tourists, killing seven of them as well as their two Yemeni drivers. Six Spaniard tourists, two drivers and four security guards were injured in the bombing. The attack was condemned by the governments of Yemen, Spain, and several other countries. Yemeni authorities released the identities of a 11-man cell accused of planning and organizing the bombing on 2 August. Eight of the 11 alleged organizers of the attack were declared fugitives, with six being killed between August 2007 and November 2008.
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Background
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After a period of relative dormancy, al-Qaeda in Yemen (AQY) experienced a revival after a group of 23 jihadists escaped from a prison in Sanaa in February 2006. The group soon began organizing attacks, culminating in a failed double suicide car bombing on two oil facilities in September.[1] A month later, after the killing of group commander Fawaz al-Rabiee by local security forces, fellow escapees Nasir al-Wuhayshi and Qasim al-Raymi took full reign of the organization and began to restructure it. Both veteran jihadist and tacticians, they focused on embedding AQY into various governorates of Yemen by recruiting men from powerful tribes in their respective regions and assigning them as local emir's, or commanders, who would oversee operations within their jurisdictions.[2]
For Marib Governorate, Wuhayshi appointed Ali bin Ali Douha as the local AQY emir. An impressionable young man from the influential Abidah tribe, he would soon begin forming a three-man cell which would assassinate local chief criminal investigator Ali Mahmud Qasaylah on 29 March 2007, constituting AQY's first successful attack since its reemergence. On 21 June, an audiotape narrated by Raymi publicly announced the reestablishment of AQY with Wuhayshi serving as its leader in an appeal to former jihadists.[3] On 27 June, political opposition website al-shoura.net published a statement attributed to Wuhayshi vowing revenge for the killing of AQY leaders and listing four demands to the government: the release of its imprisoned members, authorization to travel to Iraq and join the insurgency, the halting of cooperation with anti-Islamic countries, and the proper administration of Sharia.[4]
At the time, tourism was a relatively unpopular industry in Yemen.[5] Marib in particular had attracted a negative reputation due to numerous tourist kidnappings by tribesmen in the 1990s. However, in the years preceding the bombings the area had seen a small increase in tourists as security incidents became rarer.[6] One of the most popular attractions in Marib and in the entire country was an ancient temple associated with the Queen of Shebacalled the Mahram Bilqis.[5][7] The Yemeni government had been attempting to further promote the 3,000-year-old structure, built during the kingdom of Sheba, since it had been renovated years prior.[6] The foreign ministry of Spain had issued a travel advisory for Marib in April 2007, warning its citizens of going unless essential and included a local guide and an escort by a local military contingent.[6]
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Bombing
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Planning
Planning for the bombing began shortly after the assassination of Qasaylah in March. Wuhayshi and Raymi rationalized an attack on foreign tourists as permissible in the same way that Osama bin Laden explained the 1992 Aden hotel bombings targeting US Marines, that being a supposed obligation to "expel the infidels from the Arabian peninsula" in accordance to Islam. Douha planned out the attack, and picked out the Queen of Sheba temple due to it being a "confined space with a single exit". His plan was to have a suicide bomber drive an explosive-laden car into a tourist convoy in the process of turning onto the main road and leaving the site, as it would be an opportunity where the tourists were all together and highly vulnerable.[5] According to an AQY informant, the attack specifically targeted a Spaniard travel group as Raymi "knew exactly what the tourists' movements would be".[8]
According to the government, a 10-man cell (excluding the suicide bomber) was responsible for facilitating the attack; eight Yemenis, one Saudi and one Egyptian. Seven members contributed to the "planning and supervising" of the attack itself, while two provided tribal protection and shelter for the group while in Marib.[9] AQY members Hamza Saleh al-Dayan and Ammar al-Waeli, reportedly acting on the orders of Hamza al-Quaiti,[10] recruited 21-year-old Abdu Muhammad al-Ruhayqah as a suicide bomber from the Musaik neighbourhood of Sanaa, an area concentrated with Islamists.[11][12] Dayan then transported and introduced him to the cell in Marib.[13] Douha and Naji Ali Jaradan, both conspirators in the Qasaylah killing and native Abidah tribesmen, sheltered Ruhayqah at a house in al-Rashid Manif Uzlah.[9][1] Ruhayqah, who did not know how to drive prior to being recruited, was given lessons and practice by cell members for weeks in various barren wadi's in Marib until he was adequately prepared. AQY filmed several recordings of Ruhayqah in the lead-up to the bombing, including his last will and testament.[5]
Attack
At around mid-morning on 2 July, a four-vehicle convoy, consisting of 13[7] Spanish tourists in two cars accompanied by Yemeni security vehicles at the front and end,[14] was making its way from Sanaa to Marib to view the Mahram Bilqis.[15] The group, comprised of six Basques and seven Catalans, had arrived at the capital on 30 June for a 25-day trip throughout the country.[16] Once the tourists had arrived at the temple, Ruhayqah pulled up in a 1982 Toyota Land Cruiser and parked by the Marib–Safer road adjacent to it.[9][17] Investigators found that the car used in the bombing had been filled with medical oxygen tanks, which were the primary contribution to the blast after being detonated by TNT packets. Also stored in the vehicle were multiple 132mm shells to cause further damage.[18]
Ruhayqah prepared to start his car as he saw most of the tourists boarding their vehicles and taking their last photographs.[17] At around 14:30 GMT,[14] just as the final tourist had boarded[15] and the first car in the convoy had turned onto the road, the bomber rammed his car bomb into the center of the convoy,[17] hitting the two vehicles used by the tourists.[14] The blast, about 50 metres away from the temple itself, scattered vehicle components and body parts around the road.[4][14]
Describing the scene from the third vehicle, one wounded survivor said "I saw that the first car was burning, in the second one the people looked pretty bad, and in mine everyone was shouting" and "I couldn't see what was happening in the fourth as I ducked because they were shooting."[19] One tourist had managed to dodge much of the blast as he was bending downwards in his seat while placing a camera in his bag.[15]
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Victims
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Out of the thirteen from the convoy, seven Spaniards, three men and four women, were killed, while six were injured.[20] Two Yemeni drivers were also killed, with an additional two drivers and four security guards being wounded.[21] A Spanish Air Force aircraft arrived in Yemen later in the day to repatriate the tourists. Abroad the plane were also seven doctors and nurses, two members of the Scientific police, and a dozen members of a Spanish delegation with representatives from several ministries led by minister of tourism Joan Clos. The aircraft arrived at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid the next day at 07:15 local time, where five victims were briefly greeted by their relatives along with foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Catalonian vice-president Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira before being transported to Gómez Ulla Military Hospital. Coffins containing those killed were discharged to the Forensic Anatomical Institute for identification.[22]
The only injured tourist who was not immediately transported to Spain was Maria Asuncion Vitorica, who had been critical condition due to suffering severe head injuries from the bombing.[20] Vitorica underwent surgery twice within 24 hours of the bombing at the al-Thawra hospital in Sanaa. A Spanish aircraft was sent to Yemen on 4 July containing a neurosurgeon to assist in Vitorica's treatment, as well as two of her sisters.[22] On 7 July, her doctors determined that she could not go through any more medical interventions. By 12 July, she had been declared brain dead by hospital personnel after multiple tests in coordination with Spanish counterparts. She was officially declared dead on 14 July, raising the total death toll of the attack to 10.[23] Her body was repatriated to Spain on 15 July, with her funeral being held the next day.[24]
Investigation
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Yemeni investigators spent several days probing the scene and collecting the remains of the victims.[25] A Ministry of Interior official quickly identified the attack as being conducted by AQY.[7] On 3 July, Spanish high court judge Fernando Andreu said that Spanish legal authorities were launching a preliminary investigation.[7] Interior minister Rashad al-Alimi said that the Yemeni government would welcome the participation of Spanish investigators and coordination between them,[20] who had arrived by 4 July as Alimi briefed the Spanish ambassador about the findings.[26] Yemeni and Spanish authorities cooperated in conducting DNA analysis from remains at the site to deduce the identity of the bomber.[18] By 6 July, Spanish officials confirmed that a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unit from the local US embassy had been dispatched to participate in the investigation, primarily to evaluate any connections between the perpetrators and Iraqi insurgents.[27]
On 3 July, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh said during a press conference that the government had received information pointing towards an AQY attack four days prior to the bombing, but did not know what was the exact target. Foreign and national interests, such as oil facilities, underwent additional security procedures, but not tourist sites. He announced a 15 million riyal ($75,500) reward for information on the perpetrators.[20]
On 2 August, the state-ran Saba News Agency reported that Yemeni authorities had positively identified the bomber as Ruhayqah through cross referencing DNA tests of human remains at the site with that of his family.[13][11] The identities of the 10 individuals responsible for the bombing were also publicly announced.[11] Yemeni investigators backed by Spanish counterparts had detained 20 Islamists, including three alleged AQY members, in relation to the bombing in July,[28][27] but none of them had been among the members of the 10-man cell.[11]
Subsequent actions
On 5 July, counterterrorism forces raided the Sanaa apartment of Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar in connection to the bombing. Dewidar was a former jihadist and Afghan Arab who settled in Yemen during the mid-1990s, unable to go back to his native Egypt after he was convicted of terrorism charges in the Returnees from Albania trial.[25] He had previously been the subject of an interrogation and search warrant on 24 June for suspected links to AQY, though he was soon released due to insufficient evidence. According to eyewitnesses, authorities engaged in a shoutout with Dewidar while outside his apartment. After his wife told them that he was wounded, her and their children were allowed to exit the apartment with assurance that he would be given the opportunity to surrender. However, the gunfight soon restarted with security forces still outside the apartment, culminating in the explosion of a grenade which killed Dewidar.[18] Media reports the next day described Dewidar dying in a shootout,[25] with authorities finding weapons, explosives, and forged documents used by al-Qaeda members to travel across several Middle Eastern countries.[27] Dewidar was initially labeled the mastermind of the attack, though his role would later be reevaluated by investigators as providing material support.[13][9]
Saleh conducted a meeting in Marib with leaders of the Abidah tribe on 5 August, demanding that they stop providing sanctuary to AQY members. The leaders quickly provided intelligence on an AQY safehouse, leading to security forces raiding it on 8 August and killing four militants; cell ringleader Douha, Naji Ali Jaradan, his brother Abd al-Aziz Said Jaradan, and a fourth militant who was to take part in another suicide bombing for the group.Initial reports of Raymi dying in the raid were later proven false.[1][12] On 13 August, a helicopter raid in Abyan Governorate led to the capture of nine people in connection to the bombing, including three Yemenis who had recently returned from Iraq.[29][30]
In September 2010, Yemeni authorities announced that Waeli would be tried in absentia for their role in the bombing along with Dayan, who turned himself in on 6 June 2010.[31] On 3 March 2011, Waeli was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "being a member of an armed group that aimed to attack foreign tourists."[32] He was killed by a US drone strike on 3 June 2011.[33]
Despite initial bilateral communication, Yemen proved subsequently uncooperative with Spanish legal authorities in regards to the investigation. Yemen had only responded to the first letter rogatory sent by the Spanish high court, in which it listed nine individuals as the culprits of the attack, including the bomber, and claimed that six were killed between August 2007 and November 2008 while they were preparing more attacks. Receiving no responses to further letters, by 2011 prosecutor Ana Noé requested to head judge Andreu that the case be closed.[34]
2015 El País–Al Jazeera investigation
As a part of an investigative series jointly produced by El País and Al Jazeera in June 2015, Hani Muhammad Mujahid, a former AQY informant for the Yemeni government, provided an account for the bombing.[8] Mujahid said that he informed the National Security Bureau of the attack a week before it took place, but had later arrived at the scene on the day of the bombing and found the preparations ready.[8][35] He stated that he had snuck away from the scene to inform two security officials of the imminent threat, but the bombing had gone through unhindered a few hours later.[15] He also questioned AQY's ability to know the location of the tourists, claiming that "no person from Al-Qaeda could have acquired this type of information."[35] He also said that multiple individuals were falsely linked to the bombing by Yemeni authorities.[34]
Esteve Masó, an victim of the bombing, requested that Spain's high court reopens its investigation based on the information given by Mujahid, calling it an "authentic bombshell that needs to be investigated."[36] On 8 June 2015, chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza requested that Spanish police investigate the information given by Mujahid.[37] The revelations were discussed at an Interpol summit in Barcelona, where an attendee stated that "Interpol can do little if what Hani Muhammad says is true since we only share information between state police". Since the suspects were not transnational criminals, responsibility for investigating the information was upon the internal affairs departments of Yemen's security organizations.[38]
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Yemen
As with previous terror attacks on foreign targets, such as the USS Cole and MV Limburg bombings, President Saleh attempted to "present his country as a victim instead of part of the problem," claiming initially that the perpetrators were foreign nationals and calling terrorism an "outside virus". According to analyst Gregory D. Johnsen, he had pinned Dewidar with responsibility for the attack in order to further portray the bombing as a non-Yemeni matter.[25]
This was the first lethal terrorist attack directed at foreign tourists in Yemen,[39] and one of the deadliest in general since 2000.[40] Tourism minister Nabil Hasan al-Faqih expressed that the bombing would greatly hinder the government's plans to triple tourism revenue by 2010; it had already slashed estimates of tourists visiting the country from 58,000 to 27,000 for the year.[41] Premier Yemeni tour operator Universal Touring Company reported that more than 70 percent of European customers had cancelled their bookings in July. The organization's head, Alwan Shaibani, estimated that a three to eight months period would be needed for the recovery of the industry. Many foreigners had also cancelled their bookings at the five-star Taj Sheba Hotel in the capital. Faqih announced additional security measures for tourists, such as the reinforcement of a popular tourist road in Hadhramaut with 15 additional security vehicles.[39] The government also began curtailing civilian and tribal weapon ownership.[42] The negative effects of the bombing were further compounded by the ambush of a Belgian tourist convoy in 2008, which had also been conducted by AQY.[43]
The Yemeni public was outraged by the attack, including tribes who partook in tourist kidnappings, who typically treated their victims with hospitality.[41] Around 1,500 people, including members of Yemen's parliament and Shura Council, participated in a government-endorsed rally on 6 July at Tahrir Square in Sanaa condemning the attack and demanding the perpetrators be brought to justice. The rally also reached the Spanish embassy, where people presented flowers to the mission and expressed condolences. Faqih said during the rally that it was Yemen's responsibility to bear the brunt of terrorist attacks as with other countries experiencing the same for supporting the war on terror. He also urged that relations with Spain be not affected by the bombing.[44][45] During a similar rally in Marib on 7 July, Governor Arif Al-Zouki said that a memorial would be built dedicated to the victims.[46]
Spain
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos condemned the bombing and gave condolences to the victims of the attack and their families.[7] King Juan Carlos I expressed his "indignation, condemnation, and revulsion" towards the bombing and extended condolences to the victims. Spokespeople for the People's Party, Convergence and Union, Republican Left of Catalonia, Basque Nationalist Party, Canarian Coalition, Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and United Left political parties condemned the attack. The Foundation for Victims of Terrorism offered its services to those affected by the attack.[47]
International
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack and stated that "no cause can justify such acts of indiscriminate violence against civilians."[48] Amnesty International called for the perpetrators of the attack to be held responsible "in accordance with international standards."[49] Statements of condemnation and condolences were issued by additional countries such as the United States,[50] France,[51] Austria,[52] Chile,[53] Syria,[54] Jordan[55] and Saudi Arabia.[56]
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References
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