Three British tourists and one Australian were shot dead yesterday at their kidnappers' hide-out in Yemen when security forces stormed the site in a disastrous end to the country's worst hostage crisis.
Twelve other captives, including nine Britons, were freed but two were injured. Three kidnappers also died. The British dead were named late last night as Ruth Williamson and Margaret Whitehouse, who died during the attack, and Peter Rowe, who died later in hospital.
According to Yemeni security sources, the kidnappers had links with Islamic extremists. A spokesman for the Yemeni embassy in London claimed the casualties were murdered by the kidnappers before the troops moved in.
"I think that when the security forces got to the place, the kidnappers started to kill some of the hostages," the spokesman said. "When the security forces intervened, there were clashes and some of the other hostages were released. Four kidnappers were arrested."
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said last night that three Britons and an Australian were killed.
"I am deeply shocked at the news of the casualties suffered by the group of tourists abducted in Yemen," he said. "I am very sorry to confirm that three of the British tourists have been killed, and others injured."
In light of the incident, "British nationals should not attempt to travel to Yemen unless their business is essential, and any British visitors still there should leave".
A spokesman for the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said that he had expressed his "shock and horror" at the deaths.
Seven of the uninjured hostages were last night at the Movenpick Hotel in Aden, and said to be in severe shock. The 12 Britons, including six women, were among 16 holidaymakers seized when the kidnappers, armed with Kalashnikovs and bazookas, held up their five-vehicle convoy on the road from Habban to Aden on Monday.
The hostages were taken to a hideout at al-Wadea'a, 250 miles south of the capital, where more than 200 government troops later surrounded them. Initially there were high hopes that the kidnapping would end peacefully, as has always happened previously. Soon afterwards, however, Yemeni security sources began to hint that this was not the usual tribal kidnap, with demands for roads, electricity, schools and basic local facilities. They suggested that the kidnappers were Islamic extremists seeking the release of their leader, Mr Salih Haidara al-Atwi.
In the north-eastern province of Marib, where four German tourists are being held, a similar siege has gone on for three weeks with no harm to the hostages.
It is unclear who fired first in yesterday's shoot-out. The official Yemeni version is that the kidnappers killed some of hostages, prompting the troops to begin their rescue. The Yemeni government also maintains that these were not the usual tribal bandits who treat their captives well; they were "politically motivated", probably linked to Islamic militants. Islamic extremists, some of them supporters of Mr Osama bin Laden, are known to be active in Abyan, where the kidnapping took place.
Another possibility is that the kidnapping went disastrously wrong when someone on one side or the other panicked. It was the largest kidnapping Yemen has known and came only a few months after the death penalty for was introduced for hostage-taking.
The British ambassador, Mr Victor Henderson, said the road where the hostages were snatched was not especially dangerous.