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Yemen investigates attack on AmericansNo link to organized terrorism found
From Rula Amin
SAN'A, Yemen (CNN) -- Investigators probed on Tuesday the killing of three American humanitarian workers by a suspected Islamic extremist but had not established a link between the attack and organized terrorism. Abid Abdulrazzaq al-Kamil, 30, told authorities he shot and killed the three Americans and wounded a fourth Monday "to get closer to God" and because he believed the Christian workers were trying to convert Muslims, the Yemeni foreign minister said. The notion that the Christian workers tried to win converts is "absolutely wrong and a perception unfortunately that was put in [al-Kamil's] mind by people who wanted him to act the way he acted," Foreign Minister Abou Bakr al-Qurabi told CNN. Al-Kamil is said to have close ties to a man accused of assassinating a popular leader of the opposition Yemeni Socialist party on Saturday, leading to initial speculation that the attack at a missionary hospital in southern Yemen might have been part of a larger plot, Yemeni journalist Faris al-Sanabani said. "I think the investigation will show there are other links with other groups [including] the incident that relates to the Yemeni Socialist Party a few days ago," al-Qurabi said. It "makes you think this is part of a group who have now unfortunately undertaken these terrorist acts," he said. U.S. authorities have interviewed al-Kamil, an administration official told CNN. The gunman entered a Baptist missionary hospital in Jibla posing as a father with a baby, according to Walid Al-Saqqaf, editor in chief of the Yemen Times. "One of the eyewitnesses there said that he came in the office as if he had a child beneath his jacket, [but] it turned out to be ... a semi-automatic rifle that he used against them," he said. The dead are William Koehn, 60, the hospital administrator; Kathleen Gariety, 53, the hospital business manager; and Dr. Martha Myers, 57, an obstetrician, said Wendy Norvelle of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. Koehn and Myers were buried Tuesday on the hospital grounds in Jibla, said Connie Bostic of the International Mission Board. Gariety's body is to be returned to Wisconsin. Don Caswell, 49, a pharmacist, was wounded in the attack but was expected to recover, Norvelle said. U.S. authorities evacuated Caswell and many other missionary workers from the hospital Tuesday. (More on victims) About 30,000 Americans live in Yemen, most of them Yemeni-Americans, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said. U.S. Embassy officials have asked the Yemeni government for extra help in providing security to the embassy and personnel there, and also to places Americans frequent, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said. And, in a consular message sent Monday, the embassy urged Americans living in Yemen "to increase their vigilance regarding personal security measures [and] vary schedules and routes." Americans were also told they should "keep a low profile and avoid congregating in places frequented by foreigners." On Monday, "the [Yemeni] government laid out in the People's Assembly a very, very strong case against terrorism and the harm that terrorism is doing to Yemeni interests," U.S. Ambassador Edmund J. Hull told CNN. 'Well aware of the risk'The hospital, about 120 miles south of the capital, San'a, has been operating "for 35 years, and we've treated more than 40,000 patients a year ... and we continue to have plans to have personnel here," Norvelle said. "Our personnel as Americans and Christians are well aware of the risk of living and serving in a place like Yemen," International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin said Monday. "We would not choose to end our ministry and service because of risk and danger to our personnel," he said. "If we would, we would probably be ending our [work] in many of the countries throughout the world." The IMB works in 184 countries, Rankin said, speaking from the board's home office in Richmond, Virginia. The IMB is "an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention."
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