Sana'a: Al Qaida in Yemen claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the attack that killed two Belgian tourists and a Yemeni driver last Friday, saying it was in retaliation for abuses of their “brothers in Yemen prisons'', a Yemeni newspaper reported on Wednesday.

“The attack came as a response to the inhumane treatment faced by our brothers in the prisons of the Political Security Organisation [Intelligence Department],'' Al Wasat independent weekly newspaper quoted a source speaking on behalf of Al Qaida's Yemen branch.

The source claimed that one of his colleagues, identified only as Helal, in Musaik neighbourhood in Sana'a had died under torture of investigators who wanted him to confess things about Al Qaida which he had nothing to do with because he was a new affiliate.

The ‘spokesman' also ridiculed the Yemeni official statements that they had arrested those responsible for attacking the Belgians tourists in Hadhramaut, southeast of the country.

“Those who were arrested were merely citizens, some of them had no identification cards, and some others had nothing to do with Al Qaida at all,'' the spokesman said.

“Those who implemented the operation are in a safe place. They are not that foolish to go along the roads between cities to offer themselves to security forces for arrest.''
Despite repeated attempts, there was no immediate comment from the government on the report.

The governor of Hadhramaut Taha Hajer had announced earlier this week that security forces had arrested a number of those responsible for attacking the tourist convoy in Dawan valley.

In the middle of January, a statement attributed to Al Qaida branch in Yemen, posted in an Islamic website, threatened to strike the interests of the Yemeni government if it did not release Al Qaida prisoners.