Blast at Yemeni court

Abed Abdulrazzak Kamel killed three US missionaries

A Yemeni judge has been injured in an explosion at the courtroom where earlier this week a man was sentenced to death for killing three Americans, witnesses say.

The early morning blast, which went off at a court in the southern town of Jibla, was believed to have been caused by a hand grenade.

Police said they arrested a man immediately after the incident.

Witnesses said they saw several people being taken away in ambulances, but it was not clear if anybody was killed.

Suspected al-Qaeda militant Abed Abdulrazzak Kamel, 30, was sentenced to death on Saturday for killing three Americans who worked at a Christian-run hospital.

He confessed to killing the three last December to get closer to God and to take revenge on Christians and Americans.

But he condemned the verdict, saying he should have been tried by an Islamic court and not a civil court.

The judge who was injured on Wednesday was not the one who sentenced Kamel, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Hospital shootings

Yemeni security officials say Kamel belonged to an al-Qaeda cell that plotted attacks on foreigners and Yemeni officials.

During the trial, Kamel told the court he had co-ordinated the attack with another suspected Muslim militant, who is being tried separately over the murder of a Yemeni politician.

Kamel went into the hospital cradling his Kalashnikov rifle inside a jacket as though it was a child, according to police.

He entered a staff room and shot dead hospital administrator William Koehn, Kathleen Gariety and doctor Martha Myers.

Kamel then went to the hospital pharmacy and shot pharmacist Donald Caswell, who later recovered.

Yemen has been a focus for anti-Western attacks in recent years.

In October 2000, 17 US sailors died in a suicide attack on the destroyer USS Cole in the southern port of Aden.

Since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, Yemen has been cracking down on Islamic militants members in an attempt to shed its image as a haven for al-Qaeda supporters.

US special forces have been allowed to operate in the country.