Suspected al Qaeda car bomb kills 7 in Yemen

SANAA, July 2 (Reuters) Six Spanish tourists and one Yemeni were killed in a suspected al Qaeda car bomb attack in the Yemeni province of Marib today, security sources said.

Security sources said the ''terrorist attack'' followed an al Qaeda statement demanding the release of some of its members jailed in Yemen and warned of unspecified actions.

One security source said six of the 13 Spanish tourists travelling in a convoy near a tourist attraction in Marib were killed and the rest were wounded.

A Spanish foreign ministry spokesman said the ministry was trying to confirm media reports about the attack in Marib, about 150 kilometres (95 miles) east of the capital Sanaa.

''According to preliminary information the blast could be the result of a car bomb that hit a convoy of (Spanish) tourists,'' one provincial authority source told Reuters. ''Investigations are underway.'' Yemen is the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It joined the US-led war on terrorism launched after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and has been battling Islamic militants for years.

The security sources said al Qaeda also demanded that Sanaa reconsider its cooperation with Washington.

In March a French student and a Yemeni man were killed and another Frenchman was wounded when Shi'ite rebels attacked an Islamic college in a volatile area in northern Yemen. The rebels are not linked to al Qaeda.

Yemen foiled two suicide attacks on oil and gas installations in 2006, days after al Qaeda urged Muslims to target Western interests, especially oil installations.

Al Qaeda's wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for the foiled attacks and vowed more strikes.

In 2002 militants bombed the French oil supertanker Limburg off Yemen's coast. In 2000, a suicide attack on the US warship Cole killed 17 US sailors.

Yemen, on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has been widely seen in the West as a haven for Muslim militants, including al Qaeda supporters.

Scores of tourists and foreigners working in Yemen have been kidnapped over the last decade by tribesmen demanding better schools, roads and services, or the release of jailed relatives.

Most hostages were 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 Islamic militants who had seized 16 tourists.

Reuters RKM DB2237