American and Canadian shot dead in Yemen

A Yemeni man shot three foreign oil workers today, killing an American and a Canadian and wounding another Canadian before shooting himself dead.

The attack took place in an oil field in the oil-rich northern province of Marib, about 100 miles northeast of the Yemeni capital San'a. Both Westerners worked at a Hunt Oil Co. rig, and were shot while they were working in the field.

A diplomat at the US Embassy said that US security personnel were in touch with the Interior Ministry to obtain more details.

The assailant was a Yemeni man who shot and killed himself after shooting the two men, according to the area tribesmen.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the shooting was politically motivated; gun violence is frequent in the largely lawless tribal areas of Yemen.

On 30 December, a suspected Islamic militant shot dead three US Christian missionaries who worked at a Baptist–run hospital.

Yemen has long been a hotbed for terrorists and is the ancestral homeland of al–Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

In 2000, an explosives–laden boat rammed an American destroyer, the USS Cole, off Yemen, killing 17 U.S. sailors. In November, a CIA–operated Predator drone fired a missile that killed bin Laden's top lieutenant in Yemen, Qaed Salim Sinan al–Harethi, and five other suspected members of the terror group.