SANAA, Jan 1: Five Italian men were taken hostage by Yemeni tribesmen on Sunday, the day after a German family of five was freed after a hostage ordeal, a security source said. “We have received a report of the kidnapping of five Italians, all men, in Sirwa in the region of Marib,” 170kms east of Sanaa, the source said.

He said the tribe that kidnapped them ‘could not be identified as yet’.

But a tribal source said the captors belong to the Al al Zayidi tribe, and that they are demanding the release of eight members of their tribe imprisoned for a tribal vendetta.

A number of Italians have been captured in the past by tribesmen.

A former German top diplomat and his family who were taken hostage by Yemeni tribesmen in the east of the country were freed on Saturday after security forces laid siege to the kidnappers’ hideout.

Juergen Chrobog — a former ambassador and foreign ministry number two — and his wife and three sons were freed while their four captors arrested.

Last month, two Austrian tourists were held hostage for three days also in the Marib region. In November, two Swiss holidaymakers were briefly held by tribesmen in the same area.

Nearly all of the kidnappings in Yemen have been carried out by tribesmen seeking to put pressure on the central government and the hostages have generally been released unharmed.—AFP