March 2009 Yemen bombings
Part of the al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
Old Walled City of Shibam
Shibam Sanaa
Location	15°55′37″N 48°37′36″E / 15.92694°N 48.62667°E / 15.92694; 48.62667 (Shibam) 15°20′54″N 44°12′23″E / 15.34833°N 44.20639°E / 15.34833; 44.20639 (Sanaa) Shibam and Sanaa, Yemen
Date	15–18 March 2009 (2009-03-15 – 2009-03-18)
Target	South Koreans
Attack type	Suicide bombings
Deaths	7 (including 2 perpetrators)
Injured	3
Perpetrator	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Two suicide bombings took place in March 2009, targeting South Korea nationals in Yemen. The first, which occurred on 15 March, targeted a group of South Korean tourists visiting the city of Shibam in Hadhramaut Governorate. The bomber detonated an explosive belt while posing for a picture with the tourists, killing four of them along with their Yemeni tour guide and injuring three others. On 18 March, another suicide bomber attempted to attack a convoy of South Korean investigators and relatives of the victims in Sanaa. However, the bombing failed and resulted in no casualties other than the perpetrator. Both attacks were claimed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The bombings followed numerous other attacks throughout the previous years against tourists and foreign interests in Yemen, primarily those belonging to the United States or European nations, perpetrated by the local al-Qaeda affiliate. It also followed the merger of the Yemeni and Saudi branches of al-Qaeda and the formation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in January 2009.^[1] In the video announcing its formation, AQAP leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi threatened attacks on Western nationals in the region. Field commander Mohammed al-Awfi was captured and extradited to Saudi Arabia the next month in what was considered a blow to the organization at the time.^[2]: 3

In early March 2009, an AQAP suicide bomber was ordered to conduct an attack in Shibam, a town in Hadhramaut and UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site renowned for its ancient mudbrick architecture which made it one of the largest tourist attractions in Yemen.^[3]: 241 The area was around 2.5 miles away from where an attack in January 2008 left two Belgian tourists dead.^[4] The bomber was directed to wait atop a popular hill overlooking the town from which tourists commonly took photos, but was given no specific objective asides from attaining high casualties.^[3]: 241 Rather than a suicide vest, he was given "a rectangular, ten-centimetre-deep metal box" storing an explosive, with a picture frame and painting depicting a waterfall bolted over it for concealment.^{[5][3]: 241–242}

On 15 March, the bomber waited atop the hill observing any visitors, eventually encountering a group of South Korean tourists.^[3]: 242 The tourists were visiting Yemen in a group of 18, five of whom did not go to Shibam with the others. According to Themesay Tour, the company which organized the tour, they had left South Korea for Yemen on 9 March and were expected to depart the day the bombing took place. Shibam was among the destinations due to the "scenic landscape and its relative safety."^[6] The tourists had gone up the hill, known as Khazzan, in order to take photographs of the old walled city at sunset.^[7]

The bomber approached the tourists as they were taking photos and detonated his explosives.^[3]: 242 Official South Korean sources claim the explosion occurred at around 5:50 p.m. local time.^[8] Tour organizer Ma Kyong-Chan said the blast happened as most of the tourists had departed from their vehicles and were admiring the scene.^[7] The bomber reportedly asked the tourists that he be photographed with them; NewsYemen claimed he moved children away from the vicinity prior to the attack.^[9][2]: 1 BBC News reported he posed alongside the tourists before he blew up.^[10]

The blast killed four tourists, two men and two women, and injured an additional four South Koreans.^[11] The killed tourists were identified as 70-year-old Park Bong-gan, 64-year-old Kim In-hye, 59-year-old Joo Yong-cheol and 55-year-old Shin Hye-yoon. The latter two were reportedly a married couple.^[12]

The bodies of those killed were received by their families at Incheon International Airport in Seoul on 19 March.^[13]

A Yemeni tour guide wounded in the attack later died of his injuries in hospital, raising the death toll to five.^[14] The number of injuries was later revised to three tourists.^[15]

An initial report on the attack from the state-ran Saba News Agency suggested that the bomber was "tricked into wearing an explosives vest."^[10] However, in their claim of responsibility, AQAP stated that the perpetrator "carried out a martyrdom-seeking operation" and referred to him as "Abu Obeida al-Jarrah."^[16][2]

Conflicting reports emerged of the bomber's identity,^[17] one report identifying him as Ali Muhsin al-Ahmad, a 19-year-old Yemeni from Taiz who travelled to Somalia in January to train for the attack. Before the attack, the bomber allegedly wrote a letter to his mother stating that his family would never see him again and that he was on the "true path."^[18][17]

The Yemeni government immediately launched an inquiry after the bombing.^[19] A local official initially suggested that the blast could have been due to remnants of dynamite from a mine or a pre-planted bomb, though later confirmed to be an AQAP suicide attack.^[20][21] A local newspaper reported that the remains of an unidentified man believed to be the perpetrator were found at the site.^[21][22] The Yemeni government announced on 18 March that they had detained 12 Islamists as part of groups which may have information on the actual perpetrator of the bombing.^[22]

In South Korea, an emergency government meeting headed by Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo was held to discuss the bombing.^[8] A team of four officials; two from the foreign ministry along with representatives from the National Police Agency and National Intelligence Service, was sent to Yemen.

The South Korean foreign minister announced on 17 March that a Yemeni-led preliminary investigation, with South Korean assistance, determined the incident was a deliberate attack, but did not establish if the Koreans were specifically targeted.^[23]

The South Korean government called an emergency meeting in the aftermath of the attack.^[14] South Korean foreign minister Yu Myung-hwan sent condolences to the victims of the attack and called for a thorough investigation into it during a phone call with Yemeni foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qurbi.^[15][24] The Ministry announced that it would issue a travel advisory across all of Yemen after the attack, urging its citizens to leave.^[12][14]

On 18 March, a suicide bomber attacked a three-vehicle South Korean convoy heading to the International Airport in Sanaa. The convoy was composed of a team sent by the South Korean government to investigate the bombing, which included two foreign ministry officials and representatives of the national police and intelligence service, as well as relatives of the killed tourists.^[25] The bomber, a 20-year-old student according to his identity card recovered at the scene,^[10] was waiting by the gates of the al-Dailami Air Base, which shares a runway with the airport.^[26] When the convoy arrived at the road to the airport,^[27] at 8:40 a.m. AST the bomber walked into the road between two of the vehicles and blew himself up.^[28][29] However, the bomber detonated his explosive belt seconds after the convoy had passed resulting in zero harm against the passengers, although the front window of one of the vehicles was shattered.^[25][30]

On 26 March, Yemeni authorities arrested six of the 12 suspects in the Shibam bombing, claiming that they were AQAP members who were involved in the Sanaa attack on the South Korean convoy as well as 10 other plots to attack foreign tourists and oil facilities.^[31] The government stated that the other six suspects were still being hunted, with photos of them being publicized on television and newspapers and bounties being announced for them.^[32][31]

AQAP claimed responsibility for the Shibam bombing through an internet message on 26 March.^[16] The group stated that they had targeted South Koreans due to their country's support for the war on terror.^[16] It also called the attack revenge for the killing of Hamza al-Quaiti, the leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Soldier's Brigade of Yemen, in August 2008.^[33] The group later claimed responsibility for the Sanaa bombing in April, claiming that the attack was meant to highlight the Yemeni government's inability to protect South Koreans.^[34]

• 2007 Marib suicide car bombing
• 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan