Suicide Attacker Kills 9 at Yemen Temple

Security forces and others attend the scene after a suspected al-Qaida-linked suicide bomber killed nine people including several Spanish tourists when he drove his car into the site of the ancient Queen of Sheba temple in the central province of Marib, about 140 kilometers (84 miles) east of the capital San'a, in Yemen, Monday, July 2, 2007, police officials said. Seven of those killed were believed to be Spanish tourists, the officials at Yemen's Interior Ministry said. (AP Photo/Marib Press) (Marib Press - AP)

The U.S. Embassy also warned Americans to avoid the area after a Yemeni guard in neighboring Shabwa province fired on a group of foreign oil workers after they landed at a company airstrip on June 23. One person was killed and five wounded, including an American.

The provincial governor said at the time that the guard was mentally ill, but the U.S. Embassy in San'a canceled travel to the two provinces "for the near future" and recommended that Americans avoid the area.

Al-Qaida continues to have an active presence in Yemen despite government efforts to fight the terror network. Al-Qaida was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later.

In 2002, bin Laden's top deputy in Yemen, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi was killed near Marib by a missile fired from a U.S. drone aircraft. Al-Harethi was believed to have coordinated the Cole attacks.

Yemen was a haven for Islamists from across the Arab world during the 1990s, but after the Sept. 11 attacks, it declared support for the U.S. campaign against terrorism.

But its crackdown on militants has suffered a number of setbacks, such as the February 2006 prison breakout of 23 convicts _ some of whom had been jailed for al-Qaida-linked crimes.

Foreign interests in Yemen often face low-level threats and foreign tourists are frequently kidnapped by tribes seeking to win concessions from the government, either better services or the release of jailed relatives. Most of the hostages have been released unharmed.

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Associated Press Writer Harold Heckle in Madrid, Spain, contributed to this report.