By Eric Watkins

Kidnapping has been rampant in Yemen for more than a decade now. But this recent tragedy marks the first time that it has included killing. Why the change?

There can be little doubt that the rise of Islamist militants has altered the traditions of Yemeni hostage taking, particularly in the wake of last week's bombing of Iraq and calls for revenge among Islamists.

Ironically enough, though, it was the Yemeni government which encouraged the very militants behind this week's tragic events. "There can be no doubt of this," said a former Yemeni diplomat, under condition of anonymity.

"These events occurred in Abyan, a part of Yemen widely known for its connections to Osama bin Laden and the 'Afghan-Arabs'. These people have had training camps there for years, have sworn to attack Westerners and are now carrying out their threats," he said.

Bin Laden associate

Abyan Province said to have well known connections with Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden

The training camps were established by Tariq al-Fadhli, a Yemeni associate of the exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

Having fled South Yemen following the Marxist takeover in 1967, he met the Saudi millionaire in Afghanistan during the war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

After helping to defeat the Russians, Tariq al-Fadhli hoped to return to Yemen and topple the Marxists there, too.

He realised his dream during the 1994 Yemeni civil war, supporting President Ali Abdullah Saleh's successful bid to destroy the former leaders of South Yemen.

As a reward, President Saleh renewed his hereditary title of Sultan, restored his family's extensive landholdings in Abyan and appointed him a member of his personal advisory body, called the consultative council.

Although he may have joined the Yemeni establishment, his followers have not dropped their militant aims.

'Terrorist acts'

Indeed, enjoying the protection of powerful Yemeni political leaders, members of his Islamic Jihad have for years been implicated in a variety of terrorist acts at home and abroad.

Egypt has long had detailed evidence that Yemen hosted Islamic Jihad cells responsible for the 1993 attempt on the life of the Egyptian prime minister.

At the time, Cairo advised the Yemeni government to close the extremists' training camps and repatriate the Egyptians among them. But Yemen refused to acknowledge the camps until 1995, after the attempted assassination of the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak.

Even then, though, the Yemenis declined to co-operate. While visiting Cairo after the attempt on President Mubarak, Yemen's president said his security forces had discovered a cell of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, the group responsible for the death of Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat.

But President Saleh declined to hand over the suspects, attempting instead to trade them for some of his political opponents exiled in Cairo. With the tacit support of government officials, Yemen's Islamic Jihad has played a key role in the country's recent political history. But this week's murder of foreigners means that role must come to a decided end.

The question now is whether the Yemeni government has the means - and the will - to bring about that end.

Eric Watkins is a freelance writer on Yemeni affairs