A suicide bomber blew himself up Monday at the site of an ancient temple popular with tourists, killing seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis less than two weeks after the US Embassy issued a terror warning about the area.

The attack took place at about 6:00 PM local time (15:00 GMT) and the victims were part of a group of 14 Spaniards who were touring the area. Six more Spaniards and two more Yemenis were injured and they were transferred to a hospital in Marib province, about 85 miles east of the capital San'a.

Witnesses said the bomber drove a car through the gate of the temple compound, and the vehicle exploded near the structure, which was built about 3,000 years ago and dedicated to the legendary Queen of Sheba.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities linked the suicide bomber to al-Qaida. Police said "preliminary information indicates that Al Qaida is behind this cowardly attack". 

The Al Qaida group in Yemen had recently issued a statement, demanding the release of fighters from Yemeni jails and threatening to carry out attacks if demands are not met.

Also on Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the deadly terrorist attack in a statement released by his spokesperson.

Ban said he is appalled by the killing of seven Spanish tourists and two Yemeni nationals, and the wounding of eight other people. He condemned this terrorist attack and reiterated that no cause can justify such acts of indiscriminate violence against civilians.

Less than two weeks ago, the US Embassy warned Americans to avoid the area. On June 23 in the neighboring Shabwa province, a Yemeni guard opened fire on a group of foreign oil workers shortly after they landed at a company airstrip, killing one and wounding five, including an American.

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

Al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, 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.

Yemen was a haven for Islamists from across the Arab world during the 1990s, but after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it declared support for the US campaign against international 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 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.

(China Daily via agencies, July 3, 2007)