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SANAA A suicide bomber on Wednesday attacked a South Korean delegation visiting Yemen, just days after a weekend bombing at a historic tourist site that killed four of their compatriots, AFP reports.
No one was killed or injured in the blast, the latest in a spate of attacks against foreign targets in one of the poorest countries in the world, but South Korea issued a new warning to its nationals.
'Vehicles carrying our government officials and bereaved family members came under a terrorist attack today. Nobody was harmed,' said a foreign ministry official in Seoul.
The bomber blew up his explosives belt as the delegation was travelling with Yemeni officials in a three-car convoy to the airport in the capital Sanaa, shattering car windows, officials in Yemen and South Korea said.
A senior Yemeni security official said the security services had been alerted to a possible attack at the airport.
The South Koreans were visiting after four tourists were killed on Sunday while watching the sun set over the historic eastern mud-brick city of Shibam.
Their local guide was also killed in the attack, blamed on the local branch of al Qaeda.
South Korea had sent a four-strong investigative team to Yemen made up of two foreign ministry officials as well as representatives of the national police and the intelligence agency to investigate.
Foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young said it was unclear whether Wednesdays explosion was aimed at Koreans or whether the bomber believed the convoy was carrying Yemeni officials, since it was led by a police car.
'We are urging our diplomatic missions, Korean travellers and businessmen in the region to be cautious about possible dangers,' he said.
Yemeni security officials at the site said they found a piece of the bombers identity card, showing that he was a 20-year-old student.
'We have found his address, and the investigation will start from there,' one official
said.
The attack took place as South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung Soo was visiting Jordan.
Al Qaeda has claimed a string of attacks in Yemen targeting tourists, foreign missions and oil installations, notably the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden that killed 17 sailors.
Yemens official Saba news agency said that a Yemeni teenager who had been 'tricked by al Qaeda into wearing an explosives vest' carried out Sundays attack against the tourists.
A Yemeni news website said on Tuesday the bomber had asked for a picture with the tourists on the hill overlooking Shibam shortly before detonating his explosives belt.
The town is famous for its multi-storey mud-brick merchants houses, which date back to the 16th century and have earned Shibam a UNESCO world heritage listing and the nickname of the 'Manhattan of the desert.'
South Korea has designated the entire country as a 'travel restriction' area and strongly advised its citizens to avoid it.
The attack was the worst incident involving South Korean travellers since 2007, when 23 Christian aid workers were taken hostage by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan.
In January 2008 two Belgian tourists were shot dead with their local guide and driver in Yemen and a car bombing in Marib, east of Sanaa, in July 2007 killed eight Spanish holidaymakers and two Yemeni drivers.
The US embassy in the capital was targeted last September by a double car bombing claimed by al Qaeda that killed 19 people, including seven attackers.
Few tourists visit Yemen, which also has a history of abductions of Westerners by powerful tribes who then use them as bargaining chips with the authorities. Those kidnapped are generally freed unharmed.
