Chinese hostages released in Yemen

Source: Agencies 19/05/2010

Sana’a, Yemen, May 19 ( Pal Telegraph, by Anwar Al-Shoaybi)- Two Chinese oil company workers held hostage on Sunday by separatist militants in the eastern province of Shabwa were released unharmed , security sources reported on Tuesday.
The two men, who worked for an oil drilling company, were taken by their captors to a mountaintop, some 40 km away from the area where their company operates.
Yemeni security officials had accused separatist militants of orchestrating the abduction to press authorities in a dispute over a criminal case.
The abductors were requesting reparations for a fellow tribesman wounded in crossfire with security forces at a highway checkpoint last week.Both workers safely arrived in Attaq city, the provincial capital of Shabwa, according to the sources.
Disgruntled tribesmen have often abducted foreigners in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country to press for demands from authorities.
Most of those abducted have been released unharmed, but in 2000 a Norwegian diplomat was killed in crossfire and in 1998 four Westerners were killed during a botched army attempt to free them from Islamist militants who had seized 16 tourists. Yemeni tribesmenhas faced increasing unrest by militants seeking the re-establishment of southern Yemen as independent state.