Tribesmen

Armed tribesmen kidnapped two American tourists Monday in rugged territory about 45 miles west of Sana, the capital of Yemen, according to news reports and Yemeni security officials. The man and woman were traveling by car when they and their Yemeni driver and guide were abducted in Al Haymah district. The Yemen Observer reported that gunmen brought the Americans, believed to be a husband and wife, to a village where they were offered food and khat leaves, a mild stimulant traditionally chewed by Yemenis.

The prized scion of Moammar Kadafi is a prisoner of tribesmen in these mountains of scrub and ocher rock. The rebels who captured him after the 2011 civil war that toppled his father have refused to turn him over to the central government in Tripoli or the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The militiamen patrolling hillsides of winding roads and scattered bunkers want Seif Islam Kadafi tried in a rural courtroom and hanged. "Seif is a murderer and a liar. We have our own high court so we'll try him in Zintan," said Alramah Mohammed Elmerhani, a former rebel commander who was wounded in a tank battle.

In the year since he and 200 other Montagnard refugees from Vietnam arrived here, Y Suai Nie seemed to have it made. By putting in long hours six and sometimes seven days a week, the 35-year-old factory worker was able to buy a sports car, a television and a stereo, and he had several thousand dollars squirreled away in the bank. But, last summer, Nie decided that life was no longer worth living.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh blamed his foes for raging street battles in the nation's capital even as President Obama called for him to honor a deal to step down and his country teetered on the brink of collapse. Shelling and gunfire echoed across Sana for a third day, including in an area near the airport, and white flashes lighted the night sky. Residents said that tribesmen who are clashing with government forces had seized Yemen's state-run news agency. In the preceding 48 hours, anti-Saleh fighters captured the interior and trade ministries.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh blamed his foes for raging street battles in the nation's capital even as President Obama called for him to honor a deal to step down and his country teetered on the brink of collapse. Shelling and gunfire echoed across Sana for a third day, including in an area near the airport, and white flashes lighted the night sky. Residents said that tribesmen who are clashing with government forces had seized Yemen's state-run news agency. In the preceding 48 hours, anti-Saleh fighters captured the interior and trade ministries.

The radical Yemeni feminist has almost nothing in common with the Islamic tribal sheik, except for a willingness to die for the same cause. "I'd rather get shot on the street than live under Saleh," said Sarah, a fiery 23-year-old college graduate and social worker, referring to Yemen's longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Nasser Saber, a 27-year-old sheik from impoverished Marib province, where electricity is a luxury and female literacy is almost unheard of, spoke in similar terms.

The Mahsud tribesmen of South Waziristan don't hate the Taliban. But they hate what having Taliban fighters living among them has done to life in their mud-hut hamlets. The Taliban presence has made their villages frequent targets for U.S. missile strikes. It has prevented schools and hospitals from opening and roads from being built. Many villages still do not have electricity or phone lines. As people stream out of South Waziristan to escape the all-out blitz against the Taliban, they say they back the offensive, if only because it represents their best -- and only -- hope for a clean break from the misery of isolation.

Pakistani militants loyal to Taliban commander Baitullah Mahsud captured a town at the entrance to the South Waziristan tribal region after a battle with pro-government tribesmen, police said. At least four tribesmen and two militants were killed in the fighting for control of Jandola, they said. "The Taliban [fighters] have taken over Jandola" and are holding seven tribesmen hostage, said the area's police chief, Barkat Ullah. A Taliban spokesman said nine people, including seven tribesmen, had been killed and the Taliban had abducted 10 pro-government fighters.

Two suicide attacks targeting pro-government tribesmen and security forces killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens in areas of Pakistan's northwest where the military has cracked down on insurgents, officials said. In the Bajaur tribal region, a suicide attacker killed 17 tribesmen who had formed a militia to combat insurgents. Forty people were hurt, government and hospital officials said. In the northwest's Swat valley, a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint, killing at least two paramilitary troops and injuring at least 20 people, officials said.

A Dutch couple held for two weeks by Yemeni tribesmen were freed, and a tribal leader said Yemen's government paid more than $250,000 in ransom. The government denied paying the money or meeting any demands and said it was searching for the kidnappers among the Serag tribe in a mountainous region east of Sana, the capital. Tribesmen armed with assault rifles seized the couple from their car in Sana on March 31 and took them to an area about 40 miles to the east. Powerful tribes in the impoverished country have used the abductions of foreigners -- either tourists or those living or working in the country -- to pressure the Yemeni government to meet demands, often to free clan members from jail.

The radical Yemeni feminist has almost nothing in common with the Islamic tribal sheik, except for a willingness to die for the same cause. "I'd rather get shot on the street than live under Saleh," said Sarah, a fiery 23-year-old college graduate and social worker, referring to Yemen's longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Nasser Saber, a 27-year-old sheik from impoverished Marib province, where electricity is a luxury and female literacy is almost unheard of, spoke in similar terms.

Clashes in recent days between Arab nomads and tribesmen have left at least 30 people dead and raised fears that the independence referendum in southern Sudan could lead to widespread violence in the disputed, oil-rich region of Abyei. Straddling the volatile area where northern and southern Sudan meet, Abyei has a dangerous mix of heavily armed Arab cattle herders loyal to the northern-based government of President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir and Dinka Ngok tribesmen aligned with the southern leadership.

Armed tribesmen kidnapped two American tourists Monday in rugged territory about 45 miles west of Sana, the capital of Yemen, according to news reports and Yemeni security officials. The man and woman were traveling by car when they and their Yemeni driver and guide were abducted in Al Haymah district. The Yemen Observer reported that gunmen brought the Americans, believed to be a husband and wife, to a village where they were offered food and khat leaves, a mild stimulant traditionally chewed by Yemenis.

Reporting from Seoul and Zamboanga City, Philippines -- Gunmen raided a remote Philippine village before dawn Thursday and abducted at least 75 people in a restive southern province, an army spokesman said. Within hours the assailants had freed 18 captives, 17 of them children, amid negotiations with government officials, authorities said. They freed nine others today and are demanding that murder charges be dropped The incident was the second recent mass abduction in the Philippines.

The Mahsud tribesmen of South Waziristan don't hate the Taliban. But they hate what having Taliban fighters living among them has done to life in their mud-hut hamlets. The Taliban presence has made their villages frequent targets for U.S. missile strikes. It has prevented schools and hospitals from opening and roads from being built. Many villages still do not have electricity or phone lines. As people stream out of South Waziristan to escape the all-out blitz against the Taliban, they say they back the offensive, if only because it represents their best -- and only -- hope for a clean break from the misery of isolation.

In a brazen attack on Iran's military elite, a suicide bomber today killed five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and 26 others at a gathering of tribal leaders in a southeastern province near the Pakistan border that's known for drug running and religious extremism, according to the official Iranian news agency. The assault was carried out by a lone man who reportedly disguised himself in tribal dress and detonated an explosives belt at a gymnasium in the city of Pisheen in the Sistan-Baluchistan province, a harsh land plagued by heroin smuggling and ethnic animosities.

Kidnaped U.S. diplomat Haynes Mahoney III was released late Monday by tribesmen who had held him hostage at their desert stronghold, Interior Minister Yehya Mutawakil said. In Washington, the State Department said it could not confirm the release. Mahoney, 44, the head of the U.S. Information Service office, was kidnaped Thursday on his way to a Thanksgiving dinner. "We have met all the demands of the kidnapers. We pledge to carry them out," the minister said.

Two South African blacks were stoned to death in continuing political violence, and a black miner died in tribal fighting, raising the death toll in six days to 33. The stonings occurred in the black township of Soweto, outside Johannesburg, police said, adding that few details were available. The miner was killed during fighting between Xhosa and Basotho tribesmen at Vaal Reefs, the world's largest gold mine, according to the Anglo American Corp., the mine's owner.

A Dutch couple held for two weeks by Yemeni tribesmen were freed, and a tribal leader said Yemen's government paid more than $250,000 in ransom. The government denied paying the money or meeting any demands and said it was searching for the kidnappers among the Serag tribe in a mountainous region east of Sana, the capital. Tribesmen armed with assault rifles seized the couple from their car in Sana on March 31 and took them to an area about 40 miles to the east. Powerful tribes in the impoverished country have used the abductions of foreigners -- either tourists or those living or working in the country -- to pressure the Yemeni government to meet demands, often to free clan members from jail.

In village after village, the pattern is the same. Sinister "night letters" threaten tribal elders considered loyal to the government. The local girls school is forced to close down -- or goes up in flames. Those bold or reckless enough to travel by road risk ambush, abduction or worse. Alarmed by the tightening Taliban grip on huge swaths of Afghan countryside, U.S.