Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

310 • ISLAMIC JIHADBritons, two of them women, and one Australian man were killed inthe first incident in which foreign hostages had been reported to havebeen killed by terrorists in Yemen. Although the Yemeni securityforces claimed that they had stormed the hideout only when the rebelshad started to kill the hostages, the surviving hostages contendedthat it was the assault of security forces that killed the four who werebeing used as human shields by the kidnappers. Three kidnapperswere killed and another three injured in the rescue attempt.The Islamic Jihad in Yemen group had abducted four Germantourists three weeks earlier who had been released after negotiationsbetween their captors and the German government. The group alsoissued messages under the name of the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan.On 5 May 1998 a Yemeni court sentenced the five members of thegroup for the abduction of the 16 tourists and for the deaths of thefour tourists killed in the attack. Three of those convicted, Zein AbuBakr al Mihdar, Abdullah Saleh al Junaidy, both Yemenis, and SalehAbu Huraira, an Algerian, were sentenced to death and a fourth,Ahmed Mohammed Atif, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.The brother of Atif, Saad Mohammed Atif, was found not guilty. Theleader of the group, al Mihdar, was executed on 17 October 1999.The leader of the Aden-Abyan Islamic Jihad, Zein Abu Bakr alMihdar, who also used the nom de guerre Abu al Hassan al Mohady,had previously fought alongside the Afghan Mujahideen in their waragainst the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. After returning to Yemen,he fought on the side of the current president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the1994 civil war that briefly erupted following the reunification of Yemenin 1991. Searches of the rebels’ camp revealed bomb-making materials,antitank rockets, and a satellite telephone. The ten Aden-AbyanIslamic Jihad members arrested and convicted for terrorism prior to thekidnapping of the tourists included eight Muslims from Britain who hadentered the country under the pretext of learning the Arabic language.In March 1999 the group issued threats against the U.S. and Britishambassadors in Yemen. The group was forced to relocate to thenorthern province of al Jawf after government troops drove them outof the Abyan region. Evidence now links the group to the attemptedsinking of the USS The Sullivans in January 2000 and to the bombingof the USS Cole in October 2000. The group also claimed responsibilityfor the suicide boat attack on the tanker ship MV Limburg offthe coast of Yemen on 6 October 2002.