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Three US Doctors Shot Dead In Yemen
Source: ReutersA Yemeni has shot dead three American doctors and wounded a fourth U.S. national at a missionary hospital in the south of the country. Sources at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa on Monday confirmed the victims were U.S. citizens and said they were working at the Jibla Baptist hospital in Ebb province, some 105 miles south of the capital. The Yemeni official described the gunman as an Islamist militant. After he was arrested he told police that he had shot the two men and two women to "cleanse his religion and get closer to Allah". Yemeni security sources linked the so far unidentified man to a member of an Islamist opposition party who had killed a prominent opposition official earlier this week. Both men were trained in Afghanistan, the sources said. Afghanistan: the gift that keeps on giving. FOLLOWUP: The murdered were the administrator of the hospital William E. Koehn , 60, Obstetrician Dr. Martha C. Myers, 57, and storage department manager, Kathleen A. Gariety, 53. The doctor worked for several years in serving humanitarian needs in the country a source of the US embassy disclosed to Yemen Times. They have been serving Yemen for twenty years, and were about to leave after a transition of administration a source close to the Baptist Maaden Hospital in Jibla said. The incident looked as if it was pre-planned as the attacker knew who to target and knew they were Americans. Sources at the hospital said that he may have also knew that there would be a meeting at that particular time to discuss the transition of the administration of the humanitarian services in the hospital to a Yemeni NGO or a British association. "I doubt that the Brits will consider running the hospital after what happened," a source close to the hospital said. So the Baptists have been running a missionary hospital for 20 years, helping the locals out of the goodness of their hearts and for the Glory of God. And this ingrate decides to pop a few infidels. And make sure one of 'em's an obstetrician, because there are entirely too many Yemeni women who're surviving childbirth now. As I've pointed out on a number of occasions, there doesn't appear to be a word for "gratitude" in Arabic. MORE FOLLOWUP: The suspected attacker, a Yemeni, was arrested, and a Yemeni official said security forces were searching for a militant cell that may be targeting foreigners and secular figures in the country. The gunman entered the complex of Jibla Baptist Hospital in the town of Jibla hiding a semiautomatic rifle under his jacket to make it resemble a child, officials and the missionary organization said. He slipped past a security check where visitors are supposed to leave their weapons. It being Yemen, his gun was his baby... The killings are ``a crime unacceptable in any religion. This contradicts Islam,'' said a Jibla woman who gave only her first name, Fatima, and said she used the hospital. ``They cared for us and looked after us. I can't even count the number of children they treated and saved.'' So now she'll have to watch her back... Jack Graham, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, called the three victims ``martyrs'' who were ``killed in the line of duty.'' Speaking from Plano, Texas, Graham said that aside from providing humanitarian aid, the missionaries were ``there because they're Christians and they have no doubt been sharing their faith.'' That's the Christian definition of a martyr: someone who's killed for his faith. The Islamist definition is a bit different, covering people who get bumped off in the course of perpetrating unspeakable crimes... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-12-30 |
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