On 28 December 1998, a group of seventeen tourists from western countries, mostly the United Kingdom, was attacked by the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army in Abyan Governorate while traveling to Aden, Yemen.
Kidnappings of foreigners in Yemen were not uncommon and were mainly conducted by tribes who sought to pressure the Yemeni government into providing them aid or improving their living conditions.
[6] The convoy, escorted by Yemeni police, held seventeen tourists – thirteen Britons, two Americans, and two Australians – who were interested in learning about Arabic society and culture.
[7] Eighteen Aden-Abyan Islamic Army members from the Al-Fadl tribe armed with Kalashnikovs and bazookas opened fire at the police escorts.
The lead vehicle, which held a British tourist and a Yemeni tour guide, was able to escape and reach Mawdiyah, Abyan, where it alerted authorities of the kidnapping.
Nick Green, a tour guide from London, recounted waving at the group as it overtook his before it drove into a roadblock set up by the kidnappers.
The abductions brought the total number of Westerners held hostage in Yemen at the time to 20, joining four German tourists kidnapped by the Bani Dhabyan tribe in Marib Governorate.
[15] There were initially hopes that the hostage crisis would end peacefully, similarly to other such incidents,[2] and Yemeni authorities attempted to negotiate their release earlier in the day.
[8] On the morning of 29 December 1998, as the captives joked about whether or not their captors would provide them breakfast, a team of over 200 heavily armed Yemeni soldiers surrounded the hideout.
[7] As soldiers approached, the militants divided the hostages into two groups of eleven and five[8] and took them to separate locations before using the women in human shields to fend off security forces.
[15] Firkins stated that a gunman pointed a gun at his chest but went away, and a female hostage – Williamson[14] – was subsequently fatally shot on the back of her neck.
[10] However, due to the fatalities seen in the botched rescue attempt, tourism in the country saw a severe decrease, with the year following seeing only 50,000 tourists enter, as opposed to 105,000 in 1998.
However, just two years after the kidnapping, survivor Mary Quin conducted an interview with Abu Hamza, in which he referred to the abductions saying, "We didn't know it would be that bad,"[19][20] and called it "Islamically justified".