South Koreans urged to flee Yemen

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South Korea urged its citizens to leave Yemen following two suicide bomb attacks in the last week which killed four South Koreans.

The warning came after a second attack on Wednesday hit a delegation investigating an attack on Sunday.

In Seoul, about 100 activists protested against the attacks.

On Wednesday a man walked between two cars in the Korean convoy as it was driving back to the airport in Sanaa and detonated an explosives belt.

A foreign ministry official in Seoul said the vehicles were carrying government officials and bereaved family members from their hotel in the capital to the airport.

He said no-one in the convoy was hurt although some of the car windows were shattered.

Four Korean tourists and their local guide were killed in Sunday's attack in the city of Shibam in Hadramut - a Unesco world heritage site.

Al-Qaeda blamed

The Yemeni authorities have said al-Qaeda were behind Sunday's suicide bombing and that 12 suspects were arrested according to Associated Press news agency reports.

Yemeni security officials quoted by the AFP news agency said they found a piece of the bomber's identity card. It showed his address and the fact he was a 20-year-old student, they said.

There are conflicting reports about the perpetrators of Sunday's attack in Shibam.

A local teenager went up to a group of 16 Korean tourists and posed for pictures with them as the sun set over the historic high-rise desert city. Moments later, a bomb he was carrying blew up.

Reports initially said the attacker was linked to al-Qaeda elements in Yemen, but a later report on the official news agency said he had been "tricked into wearing an explosives vest".

The official news agency reported on Thursday the suicide bomber wrote to his mother telling her that he go on the right path and asked her to pray to Allah for him not to be jailed.