A suspected Islamic extremist shot dead three Catholic nuns in Yemen yesterday, a Yemeni official said. "A man suspected to be an Islamic extremist opened fire on three nuns today and killed them instantly," said the official in Hodeidah, 225 km west of the capital, Sanaa.
A police spokesman said the killer was a "mental patient" who had previously been a patient in the Dar-es-Salaam hospital, run by 12 nuns, and wanted "revenge" for his incarceration there.
The official said the nurses, two of whom were from India and one from the Philippines, were killed in the hospital, a charity organisation affiliated with an international charity formerly run by the late Mother Teresa.
Residents detained the gunman immediately after the incident as he tried to escape. He was handed over to a nearby police patrol. Residents said about 10 or 12 nuns offer medical services in Hodeidah, a Red Sea port in the predominantly Muslim country.
"The interrogation of the killer, who used a Kalashnikov, is still going on . . . He confessed to the crime and said he would go to heaven," the official said.
He said the suspect said during interrogation that he killed the three nurses because they were "preaching Christianity".
The suspected killer was named as Mr Abdullah al-Nasheri (22) from Sanaa, who had fought in Bosnia as a volunteer in 1992. Mr Nasheri had lived in Bosnia since 1992 and had acquired Bosnian nationality.
"Nasheri holds dual Yemeni-Bosnian nationality and is married to a Bosnian woman," the official added. He gave the nuns' names as Sister Zilia (35) from India, Sister Elita (40) from India, and Sister Michaela (36) from the Philippines.
Residents said it was the first report of violence in Yemen against Catholic nuns who have been offering humanitarian help in the impoverished Arab state for decades.
More than 100 foreigners, including diplomats but mainly tourists, have been kidnapped by tribesmen in Yemen since 1992. Most were released unharmed.
Guns, mainly Kalashnikov automatic rifles, are openly carried in Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries. Unofficial estimates put the number of firearms in the country at 50 million, more than three times the population of 16 million.
Yemen started a campaign last year to seize illegal weapons, but residents said illicit guns were still openly carried by most men.