On December 28, 1998, the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, a little known Islamic group that had issued anti-U.S. threats, kidnapped 16 western tourists, including two Americans. The group seeks the establishment of an Islamic state in Yemen and had called for "an end to the aggression against Iraq and to oust U.S. and British forces from the Gulf region."

When security forces raided the kidnappers' hideout 175 miles south of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa a day later, four hostages, three Britons and one Australian, were shot dead by the kidnappers. Two other hostages, including a U.S. citizen, were wounded. Three kidnappers were killed in the shootout and three others, including the ringleader, Zein al-Abideen al-Mehdar, were captured. Two other kidnappers were captured in January 1999. The incident marked the first time Islamic militants engaged in kidnapping, the first abduction that resulted in the deaths of westerners, and the first kidnapping in Yemen with links to known terrorist organizations.

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