Page 9 - ATD05March2016
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WORLD NEWS 9
Saturday 5 March 2016
4 Catholic nuns, 12 others killed in Yemen retirement home
AHMED AL-HAJ of Kolkata, said the mem- Yemeni security forces gather outside an elderly care home af- northern region, where
Associated Press bers of the charity were ter it was attacked by gunmen in the port city of Aden, Yemen, Shiite rebels are in control,
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — “absolutely stunned” at Friday, March 4, 2016. Unidentified gunmen stormed a retire- has been struck by an ex-
Gunmen in southern Ye- the killing. ment home run by Catholic nuns in the southern city of Aden tensive air campaign by
men on Friday stormed “The Sisters were to come on Friday shooting more than a dozen people to death, includ- a Saudi-led coalition. The
a retirement home run back but they opted to ing several Indian nuns, Yemeni security officials and witnesses southern region, which is
by a charity established stay on to serve people” in said. controlled by the interna-
by Mother Teresa, killing Yemen, she added. tionally-recognized gov-
16 people, including four She also said that two of (AP Photo/Wael Qubady) ernment backed by Saudi
Catholic nuns, officials and the killed nuns were from Arabia, is suffering from a
witnesses said. Rwanda and the other two lessness after a Saudi-led els last summer. power and security vacu-
The killing spree began were from India and Ke- coalition recaptured the Yemen’s civil war has split um.
with two gunmen who first nya. city from Shiite Houthi reb- the country in two. The The Islamic State group
surrounded the home for Earlier, Yemeni and Indian and Yemen’s al-Qaida af-
the elderly in Aden. Mean- officials reported that all filiate have exploited the
while, four others entered four killed nuns were In- lawlessness and created
the building on the pre- dian but such conflicting safe havens in the south.
text they wanted to visit information on casualties Al-Qaida controls several
their mothers at the facil- is not unusual in the chaos southern cities while IS has
ity, according to the char- of Yemen’s civil war. India’s claimed responsibility for a
ity, Yemeni security officials foreign ministry had initially wave of deadly attacks in
and witnesses. The officials cited information it got Aden, including a suicide
spoke on condition of ano- from its embassy in Yemen. bombing that killed the
nymity because they were Vikas Swarup, the spokes- city’s governor and several
not authorized to speak to man of India’s External assassination attempts on
the media. Affairs Ministry, said the top officials.
The gunmen then moved attackers had asked the
from room to room, hand- guard to open the gate on
cuffing the victims before the pretext of visiting their
shooting them in the head. mothers at the retirement
A nun who survived and home.
was rescued by locals said “On entering inside, (they)
that she hid inside a fridge immediately shot dead the
in a storeroom after hear- gatekeeper and started
ing a Yemeni guard shout- shooting randomly,” he
ing, “Run, run.” said, adding that the as-
Khaled Haidar told The sailants escaped soon af-
Associated Press that he ter the attack.
counted 16 bodies, includ- The bodies were trans-
ing that of his brother, Rad- ferred to a police station
wan. All had been shot in and then a hospital run by
the head and were hand- the aid organization known
cuffed. He said that in ad- as Doctors Without Borders
dition to the four nuns, one or MSF. An official with MSF
Yemeni cook, and Yemeni confirmed that 15 bodies
guards were among those had arrived at the hospi-
killed. tal. Haider said his family
He said that his family was took his brother’s body for
the first to arrive at the burial.
house and that he spoke There were around 80 resi-
to the surviving nun, who dents living at the home,
was crying and shaking. which is run by Missionaries
Haidar said that his family of Charity, an organization
later handed her over to established by Mother Te-
a group of southern fight- resa. Missionaries of Char-
ers in charge of security in ity nuns also came under
the local Aden district of attack in Yemen in 1998,
Sheikh Osman. when gunmen killed three
Sunita Kumar, a spokes- nuns in the Red Sea port
woman for the Missionaries city of Hodeida.
of Charity in the Indian city Aden descended into law-
