Wadi Dawan attack | |
---|---|
Location | Hadhramaut, Yemen |
Date | January 18, 2008 (UTC+3) |
Target | Belgian tourists |
Attack type | Ambush |
Deaths | 5 |
Injured | 4 |
Perpetrators | Unknown |
The Wadi Dawan attack was an ambush attack on Belgian tourists traveling in a convoy through Hadhramaut in the Wadi Dawan desert valley on January 18, 2008.
A convoy of four jeeps carrying 15 tourists to Shibam was ambushed by gunmen in a hidden pickup truck. [1] Two Belgian women, Claudine Van Caillie, of Bruges, 63, and Katrine Glorie, from East Flanders, 54, as well as two Yemenis, a driver and a guide, were killed; another man was also heavily wounded, several others suffered minor wounds. [2] The tourists were repatriated to Belgium on January 19, except the injured man, who remained in Sanaa. [3]
In the wake of the attack, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karel De Gucht originally rejected that Al-Qaeda might be responsible, explaining that although the possibility could be avoided, internecine disputes and latent Islamism also to be taken into account. [2] A number of arrests were made on January 21. [4]