Briton and wife among seven hostages killed by 'terrorists'

Their bodies were reportedly found in the north of the country today.

Nine foreigners, including a German doctor, his wife and three children, two more female German nurses, the unnamed Briton and his South Korean teacher wife, disappeared last week while on a picnic in the restive northern Saada region of Yemen.

Although the Yemeni government had accused a Shia rebel group of orchestrating the kidnappings, the group issued a statement saying it has not been involved in any abductions of foreigners.

Instead, suspicions are mounting that al Qaeda is responsible.

Kidnappings involving al Qaeda have been lethal for the hostages in the past.

A tribal leader in the area also blamed Osama bin Laden's network for the abductions and murders.

In January, militants announced the creation of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a merger between the terror network's Yemeni and Saudi branches, led by Naser Abdel-Karim al-Wahishi, a Yemeni who was once a close aide to Bin Laden.

Over the past year, al Qaeda has been blamed for a string of attacks, including an armed assault in September on the US Embassy in San'a, as well as two suicide bombings targeting South Korean visitors in March.

Some reports are that all nine of the hostages have been killed, while others say two of the children survived and have been handed over to the Yemeni authorities.

"We have found the corpses of seven people who were kidnapped," a local security official said. "They were killed."

The bodies were reportedly discovered by the son of a tribal leader in Noshour, east of the Saada area.

But another report said that shepherds roaming the province found the remains of three of the women near the town of el-Nashour and that six other bodies were reportedly found later.

Some were said to have been mutilated after being shot.

The killing of hostages is not common in Yemen, where tribesmen often kidnap foreigners to press the government on a range of demands, including a ransom, but usually release them unharmed.

Yemen is the Arab world's poorest nation - and one of its most unstable - making it fertile territory for al Qaeda to set up camp.

The country is also in a strategic location, next door to some of the world's most important oil producing nations.

It also lies just across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia, an even more tumultuous nation where Washington has said militants from the terror network have been increasing their activity.

Al Qaeda militants, including fighters returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, have established sanctuaries among a number of Yemeni tribes, particularly ones in three provinces bordering Saudi Arabia.