Three US doctors murdered at missionary hospital
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Your support makes all the difference.Three American doctors were shot to death by a suspected Muslim fundamentalist in Yemen today, security officials said.
The victims, including a woman, were shot by a man who entered Maaden Hospital, a missionary hospital where they worked in the town of Jibla, south of the capital San'a.
A fourth American doctor was injured in the shooting.
The officials said the attacker used a semi-automatic rifle and a gun in the attack. but refused to say whether the attacker was apprehended or provide other details.
Yemen has for years been a haven for wanted Muslim extremists and is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden enlisted thousands of Yemenis to fight alongside the mujahedeen of Afghanistan in their US-backed war against an occupation Soviet army in the 1980s. Many returned when the Soviets withdrew, and they are a powerful political force here.
On 6 October, an explosives-laden boat rammed a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, killing one member of the tanker's crew, tearing a hole in the vessel and spilling some 90,000 barrels of oil.
An intelligence official in Washington has said US experts believed the Limburg attack was the work of unspecified operatives with links to al-Qa'ida. Statements attributed to bin Laden and his network's "political bureau" hailed the explosion on the tanker but wouldn't confirm al-Qa'ida's responsibility.
The French tanker scenario recalled the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole, which was rammed by a small, explosives-laden boat in the southern port of Aden.
Seventeen US sailors were killed in that attack, which was blamed on al-Qa'ida. Al-Qa'ida also is held responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Yemen has signed up as Washington's partner in the war on terrorism. US and Yemeni agents have worked together in a counterterrorism center in Yemen equipped with sophisticated intelligence gathering facilities. The Americans also have trained Yemeni troops to fight militants. Yemen allows US warships free use of its waters and US warplanes use of its air space.
Yemeni security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say up to 3,000 US-trained Yemeni troops have been deployed recently in areas known to harbour wanted al-Qa'ida members.
In November, a CIA-operated Predator drone fired a missile that killed bin Laden's top lieutenant in Yemen, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, and five other al-Qa'ida suspects in Yemen.
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