2007 Marib bombing
On 2 July 2007, at around 14:30 GMT, a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into a convoy of 13 Spanish tourists finishing a visit at the Queen of Sheba temple in Marib Governorate, Yemen. The bomber, Abdu Mohammed Saad Ahmed Rehaqah, was recruited and trained to drive the car bomb by members of al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had published an online message a week prior to the bombing demanding that the Yemeni government release imprisoned militants.
Rehaqah drove the bomb into the two vehicles in the center of the convoy used by the tourists, killing seven of them as well as their two Yemeni drivers. Six Spaniard tourists, two drivers and four security guards were injured in the bombing. The attack was condemned by the governments of Yemen, Spain, and several other countries. Yemeni authorities released the identities of a 11-man cell accused of planning and organizing the bombing on 2 August. Eight of the 11 alleged organizers of the attack were declared fugitives, with six being killed between August 2007 and November 2008.
Background
Al-Qaeda insurgency
After years of relative dormancy, the al-Qaeda network in Yemen experienced a revival through a prison escape in February 2006 which freed several militants. The jihadists soon began organizing attacks in the country, leading to a failed pair of suicide attacks against two oil facilities in September of that year. The killing of Fawaz al-Rabiee the next month by security forces led to Nasir al-Wuhayshi becoming the primary leader of the group through a phase of reorganization. Wuhayshi appointed emirs from prominent tribes to lead the planning of attacks at the local level. For Marib Governorate, he selected Ali bin Ali Douha, a former prisoner and member of the influential Abidah tribe, as their local emir.A three-man cell in Marib led by Douha assassinated chief criminal investigator Ali Mahmud Qasaylah on 29 March 2007, the Yemeni government paying little attention. In late June, the group issued several statements in the first public announcement of its revival. One of those statements, published through opposition news website al-shoura.net and attributed to Wuhayshi, swore vengeance against the government and listed four demands for it; the release of imprisoned militants, authorization to travel to Iraq, the end of cooperation with anti-Islamic countries, and the administration of Sharia, and threatened to take action if they were not completed.
Tourism in Yemen
At the time of the attack, tourism was a relatively unpopular industry in Yemen. Marib attracted a particularly negative reputation due to numerous tourist kidnapping incidents in the 1990s. The Spanish foreign ministry included Marib in a travel advisory for several regions of Yemen, warning its citizens of travelling unless accompanied by a local guide and military escort. Despite this, in recent years Marib saw a small increase in tourism as security incidents became rarer. One of the most popular tourist attractions in the region and the country at large was an ancient temple associated with the Queen of Sheba called the Mahram Bilqis. The Yemeni government had been attempting to further promote the structure, built during the ancient kingdom of Sheba, since it had been renovated years prior.Bombing
Planning
The Douha cell began lobbying for another operation shortly after the assassination of Qasaylah in March. Wuhayshi and Qasim al-Raymi decided on an attack against foreign tourists, rationalizing it through a supposed edict from the Islamic prophet Muhammad to "expel the infidels from the Arabian peninsula", just as it was used by Osama bin Laden. The Mahram Bilqis was selected as the site for an attack as there was only a single exit on the road to the area, leaving any tourist convoy close together and highly vulnerable. According to an AQY informant, the group of Spaniards were targeted because Raymi had information on their exact movements.A government investigation determined that a 10-man cell was responsible for the attack; eight Yemenis, one Saudi and one Egyptian. Seven members contributed to the "planning and supervising" of the attack itself, while two provided tribal protection and shelter for the group while in Marib. AQY members Hamza Ali Saleh al-Dhayani and Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli, reportedly acting on the orders of Hamza al-Quaiti, recruited 21-year-old Abdu Muhammad al-Ruhayqah as a suicide bomber from the Musayk neighbourhood of Sanaa, an area concentrated with Islamists.
Dayan transported and introduced Ruhayqah to the cell in Marib. Douha and Naji Ali Jaradan, both conspirators in the Qasaylah killing and native Abidah tribesmen, sheltered Ruhayqah at a house in Uzlah. Ruhayqah did not know how to drive when he was recruited, and received lessons and practice by the militants for weeks in various barren wadis of Marib until he was adequately prepared. AQY filmed several recordings of Ruhayqah in the lead-up to the bombing, including his last will and testament.
Attack
At around mid-morning on 2 July, a group of Spanish tourists embarked from Sanaa to Marib Governorate, where they toured Marib city and the Marib Dam before heading to the Mahram Bilqis. The group, comprised of six Basques and seven Catalans, had arrived at the capital on 30 June for a 25-day trip throughout the country. They were travelling a convoy of four vehicles, the middle two occupied by them with Yemeni security vehicles at the front and end. A military patrol had stopped the group as they were travelling to the temple and accompanied them thereon.After the tourists had arrived at the Mahram Bilqis, Ruhayqah parked a 1982 Toyota Land Cruiser by the Marib–Safer road adjacent to the temple from which the convoy entered. Investigators found that the car used in the bombing had been filled with medical oxygen tanks, which were the primary contributor to the blast after the initial detonation by TNT packets. Also stored in the vehicle were multiple 132mm shells to cause further damage.
Ruhayqah prepared to start his car as he saw most of the tourists boarding their vehicles and taking their last photographs. At around 14:30 GMT, just as the final tourist had boarded the convoy and the first car had turned onto the road, Ruhayqah rammed the car bomb into the two middle vehicles used by the tourists. The blast, about 50 metres away from the temple itself, scattered vehicle components and body parts around the road.
Describing the scene from the third vehicle, one wounded survivor said "I saw that the first car was burning, in the second one the people looked pretty bad, and in mine everyone was shouting" and "I couldn't see what was happening in the fourth as I ducked because they were shooting." One tourist managed to avoid much of the blast as he was bending downwards in his seat while placing a camera in his bag.
Victims
Excluding the suicide bomber, 10 people were killed in the attack, them being eight Spanish tourists, one of whom died in hospital care, and two Yemeni drivers. The Spaniards were identified as married couples Antonio Pomés Tallo and María Teresa Pérez Ubago from Barcelona and Burgos respectively, Magie Álvarez Calleja and Miguel Essery Arruti from Gipuzkoa, María Isabel Arranz Bocos and Gabriel Tortosa Ortega from Barcelona, and Marta Borrell Puig from Girona. Five other tourists, two drivers and four security personnel were reported as being wounded. The former were named as Esteve Masó Vilanova, who was the wife of Puig, along with Eva María de Mena, María Estíbaliz Díez del Río, and María Begoña Larrabeiti Meabe from Biscay, and Julia Vilaró Rodríguez from Barcelona.A Spanish Air Force aircraft arrived in Yemen on the day of the bombing to repatriate the tourists. Abroad the plane were also seven doctors and nurses, two members of the, and a delegation with representatives from several ministries led by tourism minister Joan Clos. The aircraft arrived at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid the next day, where five victims were briefly greeted by their relatives along with foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Catalonian vice-president Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira before being transported to Gómez Ulla Military Hospital. Coffins containing those killed were discharged to the for identification.
The only injured tourist who was not immediately repatriated was Vitorica, who was critical condition due to suffering severe head injuries from the bombing. Vitorica underwent surgery twice within 24 hours of the bombing at the al-Thawra hospital in Sanaa. A Spanish aircraft carrying two of her sisters and a neurosurgeon to assist in her treatment arrived in Yemen on 4 July. Her doctors eventually determined that she could not go through any further medical intervention after her two surgeries. She was declared brain dead by hospital personnel after multiple tests in coordination with Spanish counterparts on 12 July, and died two days later, raising the total death toll of the attack to 10. Her body was repatriated on 15 July, with her funeral being held the next day.
Investigation
Audiencia Nacional judge Fernando Andreu announced that Spanish legal authorities would conduct an investigation into the attack the day after it took place. Interior minister Rashad al-Alimi said the Yemeni government would cooperate with Spanish investigators. Spanish foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos announced that another group of Scientific police personnel would be sent to participate in the investigation. They arrived in Yemen by 4 July as Alimi briefed the Spanish ambassador about the initial findings. On 6 July, Spanish officials confirmed that a Federal Bureau of Investigation unit from the local United States embassy had been dispatched to participate in the investigation, primarily to evaluate any connections between the perpetrators and insurgent groups in Iraq.Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh held a press conference discussing the bombing on 3 July. He told reporters that security forces had received information pointing towards an AQY attack four days prior to the bombing but did not know what was the exact target. Foreign and national interests, such as oil facilities, underwent additional security procedures, but not tourist sites. He claimed the investigation had so far determined that the bomber was a non-Yemeni Arab national and that security forces were prepared to hunt down the perpetrators. He also announced a 15 million rial reward for information leading to their killing or capture.
Yemeni investigators spent several days at the site of the attack collecting the remains of those killed. Marib police chief Mohammed al-Ghodra reported later in July that authorities from both countries were coordinating DNA analysis of the remains to deduce the identity of the bomber. On 2 August, the Yemeni state-ran Saba News Agency reported that authorities had positively identified the bomber as Ruhayqah through cross-referenced DNA testing of his remains with that of his relatives. The identities of the 10 individuals responsible for the bombing were also publicly announced. None of them had been arrested by that point.
With Andreau heading the investigation, the Spanish team in Yemen completed an "exhaustive forensic report" on the bombing. A letter rogatory sent by the Audiencia Nacional received a response from their Yemeni counterparts which listed Ruhayqah and eight other individuals as the culprits of the attack. Of the eight, six were killed between August 2007 and November 2008, while Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli was set to be tried in absentia in February 2010. The names listed reportedly differed from those previously provided to the media. Andreau and prosecutor Ana Noé sent more letters rogatory to Yemen for further clarification but they received no response. The Spanish embassy informed them in 2011 them that Wa'eli had been sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. Facing zero cooperation from Yemeni authorities, the case was provisionally shelved by the Audiencia Nacional in that year on the request of Noé, with none of the perpetrators facing the court.
Subsequent actions
As part of a sweep by authorities across the country which netted 20 Islamists in relation to the bombing, Yemeni security forces raided the residence of Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar in Sanaa on 5 July. Dewidar was a former Afghan Arab who settled in Yemen during the mid-1990s, unable to return to his native Egypt after being convicted in absentia of being a terrorist during the Returnees from Albania trial. He was previously the subject of an interrogation and a search warrant on 24 June for suspected links to al-Qaeda, but was released due to insufficient evidence. Neighbours characterized him as an ailing man working a regular job and struggling to make ends meet. Yemeni intelligence had been monitoring him for years prior to the raid.The newspaper Al-Wasat reported according to witnesses that Dewidar's wife told police he was wounded after an initial exchange of fire, whereupon her and her children were allowed to exit and were assured by the authorities that he would be allowed to surrender. Despite this, security forces later resumed the firefight, culminating in a grenade explosion which killed Dewidar. State newspapers reported the next day that he died resisting arrest. A Ministry of Interior statement identified him as an important figure in the al-Qaeda across the Middle East. Several analysts doubted this characterization, with Egyptian terrorism expert Diaa Rashwan pointing out that Arab governments frequently blame terrorist attacks on foreigners. Initially labeled the mastermind of the attack, Dewidar's role was re-evaluated by investigators a month later as simply providing material support as part of the 10-man cell.
Saleh conducted a meeting with Abidah tribal leaders on 5 August demanding an end to the al-Qaeda presence in Marib. The sheikhs provided intelligence used by security forces for a raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Marib on 8 August. The raid left four militants dead; the ringleader Douha, Naji Ali Jaradan and his brother Abd al-Aziz Said Jaradan, all of whom were implicated in the bombing, as well as a would-be suicide bomber. Initial reports of Qasim al-Raymi being among those killed were later proven false. Although the raid had dismantled the Douha cell, it had little effect on the organization overall. A Yemeni helicopter raid later in August captured nine people in connection to the bombing, including three Yemenis who had recently returned from Iraq.
2015 ''El País–''Al Jazeera investigation
As a part of an investigative series jointly produced by El País ''and'' Al Jazeera in June 2015, Hani Muhammad Mujahid, a former AQY informant for the Yemeni government, provided an account for the bombing. Mujahid said that he informed the National Security Bureau of the attack a week before it took place, but had later arrived at the scene on the day of the bombing and found the preparations ready. He stated that he had snuck away from the scene to inform two security officials of the imminent threat, but the bombing had gone through unhindered a few hours later. He also questioned AQY's ability to know the location of the tourists, claiming that "no person from Al-Qaeda could have acquired this type of information." He also said that multiple individuals were falsely linked to the bombing by Yemeni authorities.Esteve Masó, a victim of the bombing, requested that Spain's high court reopens its investigation based on the information given by Mujahid, calling it an "authentic bombshell that needs to be investigated." On 8 June 2015, chief prosecutor requested that Spanish police investigate the information given by Mujahid. The revelations were discussed at an Interpol summit in Barcelona, where an attendee stated that "Interpol can do little if what Hani Muhammad says is true since we only share information between state police". Since the suspects were not transnational criminals, responsibility for investigating the information was upon the internal affairs departments of Yemen's security organizations.
Reactions
Yemen
As with previous terror attacks on foreign targets, such as the USS Cole and MV Limburg bombings, President Saleh attempted to "present his country as a victim instead of part of the problem," claiming initially that the perpetrators were foreign nationals and calling terrorism an "outside virus". According to analyst Gregory D. Johnsen, he had pinned Dewidar with responsibility for the attack in order to further portray the bombing as a non-Yemeni matter.This was the first lethal terrorist attack directed at foreign tourists in Yemen, and one of the deadliest in general since 2000. Tourism minister Nabil Hasan al-Faqih expressed that the bombing would greatly hinder the government's plans to triple tourism revenue by 2010; it had already slashed estimates of tourists visiting the country from 58,000 to 27,000 for the year. Premier Yemeni tour operator Universal Touring Company reported that more than 70 percent of European customers had cancelled their bookings in July. The organization's head, Alwan Shaibani, estimated that a three to eight months period would be needed for the recovery of the industry. Many foreigners had also cancelled their bookings at the five-star Taj Sheba Hotel in the capital. Faqih announced additional security measures for tourists, such as the reinforcement of a popular tourist road in Hadhramaut with 15 additional security vehicles. The government also began curtailing civilian and tribal weapon ownership. The negative effects of the bombing were further compounded by the ambush of a Belgian tourist convoy in 2008, which had also been conducted by AQY.
The Yemeni public was outraged by the attack, including tribes who partook in tourist kidnappings, who typically treated their victims with hospitality. Around 1,500 people, including members of Yemen's parliament and Shura Council, participated in a government-endorsed rally on 6 July at Tahrir Square in Sanaa condemning the attack and demanding the perpetrators be brought to justice. The rally also reached the Spanish embassy, where people presented flowers to the mission and expressed condolences. Faqih said during the rally that it was Yemen's responsibility to bear the brunt of terrorist attacks as with other countries experiencing the same for supporting the war on terror. He also urged that relations with Spain be not affected by the bombing. During a similar rally in Marib on 7 July, Governor Arif Al-Zouki said that a memorial would be built dedicated to the victims.