Sanaa: Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Consul Abdullah Al-Khalidi was kidnapped on his way to work in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, media reported on Thursday.
According to reports the gunmen snatched Abdullah Al-Khalidi as he was about to get into his car and they sped off with him in another vehicle.
A Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the abduction, saying: “It happened this morning. The embassy already contacted the highest security authority in Yemen. They are investigating and trying to find out the reason.”
It was the first kidnapping of a Saudi diplomat in Yemen, where abductions are frequent and where armed tribesmen and Al-Qaeda-linked militants take hostages in an effort to swap them for prisoners or cash.
Security in the country’s second city, and in southern Yemen generally, has deteriorated during the political turmoil that began with mass protests against then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh in early 2011, and saw fighting among pro- and anti-Saleh factions of the military as well as tribal militias.
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