On November 26, 2013, unidentified persons carried out two attacks in

Sanaa Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. The victims of the attacks were two and a Yemeni policeman.

Background

In the early 2010s, the Yemeni government, led by the nationalist General People's Congress Party, which was predominantly Sunni, waged an armed struggle against the Shiite

Houthi movement The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, is a Zaydism, Zaydi Shia Islamism, Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaydi Shias, with their namesake leadersh ...

. The third force in the conflict were the south Yemeni separatists and Islamist groups. At least two Belarusians were sent in 2013 to support the Yemeni security forces. According to the official statement of the Belarusian government, they worked in the protection of the president. According to military analyst Alexander Alesin, the main task was to assist in the maintenance of

T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72 and changing the engine to a gas turbi ...

BV tanks purchased by Yemen in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

in 2010. These vehicles were repeatedly used during the fighting.

Attacks

At 9:15 a.m. on November 26, 2013, when leaving the Amsterdam Hotel in the center of Sanaa, Belarusians came under fire from militants who drove up to the building on a motorcycle. The militants were armed with a pistol or a machine gun with a silencer. One of the foreigners, an employee of the 140th repair plant Anatoly Mazynsky from

Barysaw Barysaw or Borisov (, ; , ) is a city in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Barysaw District. It is located on the Berezina, Berezina River and north-east from the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 1 ...

, died on the spot, and the second, whose identity is unknown, was seriously injured. Two hours after the attack, motorcyclists (presumably the same ones who shot at the hotel) killed police officer Ahmed al-Jaadari on Khovlian Street. On November 27, it became known that the second Belarusian victim died of wounds in the hospital.

Reaction

Initially, the media reported that the victims of the attack at the hotel were Russians. However, the press attache of the Russian embassy in Yemen, Nikolai Lyagushin, called the victims Belarusians, refuting the information about Russian citizens. According to him, they worked in the country under a private contract, and the diplomatic mission provided all the necessary assistance to the victims. The representative of the Yemeni Foreign Ministry, сolonel Mohammed al-Mauri, said that foreigners are military specialists. According to Maria Vanshina, deputy head of the Information Department of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the Belarusian side has started checking this information. Soon, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Два белоруса стали жертвами нападения в Йемене: один убит, второй в критическом состоянии
// TUT.BY, 26 ноября 2013 and the head of the
// TUT.BY, 27 ноября 2013 confirmed that the victims were Belarusians.

Attackers

No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Yemeni media speculated that the attack was a retaliatory action by

Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

. Two days earlier, government aircraft destroyed 12 members of the terrorist network.После обстрела белорусов в Йемене боевики совершили новое убийство
// РБК, 26 ноября 2013

References

External links