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Written By: Abdul-Aziz Oudah
Article Date: Jul 18, 2007 - 11:42:30 PM
The temple where the lives of eight Spaniards and two Yemenis were cut short by terrorists
A Spanish woman injured in the July 2 terrorist bombing in Marib has died from injuries suffered, said doctors. Maria Vitorica, 50, died late Saturday, two days after she was declared brain dead, said Dr. Ahmed al-Ansi, director general of al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a. Her death brings the total of Spanish victims to eight. Two Yemeni men were also killed in the attack. “The Spanish women died in the early hours of the morning last Saturday,” al-Ansi said. “She was in a state of clinical death since entering the hospital, due to severe brain injury, it was impossible to transfer her to anther place,” he said.
Vitorica was among a group Spanish tourists traveling in a convoy that was attacked by a suicide bomber while the tourists were visiting the ruins of a temple associated with the ancient Queen of Sheba. Spain sent Spanish police specialists to support local police in their investigation of the attack. The attack came less than two weeks after the U.S. Embassy warned Americans to avoid the area around the temple in northern Yemen, which until recent years was rarely visited because of frequent kidnappings of foreigners. Yemeni authorities say they have rounded up two dozen suspects since the attack.
They claim that the suicide bombing’s mastermind was Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar, an Egyptian national and alleged al-Qaida operative, who was killed last week in a shoot-out in Sana’a while resisting arrest. Four Spanish women and a man injured in the terrorist attack were treated in al-Thawra hospital and have gone home. “There were two, a man and a woman, who were in serious condition and underwent necessary surgery by a Yemeni medical team. They are also recovering, and all left for home early last week,” al-Ansi said.
The Spanish medical team visited Yemen to see the victims, and the team suggested that Vitorica be kept in Yemen because it was too hazardous for her to be moved. Security continues to collect information on the terrorists who planned and carried out the attacks, said a security source who declined to give his name. “They were elements of the Al Qaeda organization,” the source said about the perpetrators. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the car was carrying a number of oxygen bottles of the kind used in hospitals, and many of 132-mm artillery shells and explosives known as TNT, he said. Minister of Tourism Nabil Al-Faqeeh has allocated YR 200 million to promote tourism for the rest of the year, and to cope with the potential impacts of the Marib attack.
“The Marib terrorist attack came as a result of our position in our fight against terrorism and our partners, especially the U.S should realize this role and support us in our distress,” he said. He mentioned that the United States is warning its nationals against traveling to Aden and other provinces, saying the warning was “something normal, but it will not affect tourism, because of the fact that there are fewer American tourists than Europeans tourists.” Al-Faqeeh spoke at a press conference on the occasion of the signing of three agreements with three European companies to deal with the effects of the terrorist attack on tourism in Yemen.
Under agreements signed last Thursday, Italian, German, and French companies will establish offices to promote tourism to Yemen in Europe. According to the agreements, the three companies will coordinate with travel agencies and the media to highlight the advantages of tourism in Yemen and correct some information left by the terrorism attack in the minds of Europeans.
