Swiss woman kidnapped in Yemen

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants have kidnapped a Swiss woman in Yemen and are holding her in the southeastern province of Shabwa, a provincial official told AFP on Friday. "A Swiss woman was abducted in Hodeida (on the Red Sea coast) by armed men who moved her to Shabwa province," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "According to our information, Al-Qaeda is responsible for the abduction," he added. According to the official, the kidnappers are "demanding the release of two Al-Qaeda militants detained in Hodeida." He gave no further details. Shabwa is a stronghold of loyalists of the jihadists' local affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, whose militants fight under the banner of Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law). Last May, the militants took control of Zinjibar, capital of neighbouring Abyan province, and several other southern towns, triggering months of deadly fighting with government troops. More than 200 people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, many of them by members of the Arabian Peninsula's powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips with the authorities. Almost all of those kidnapped were later freed unharmed.