On 2 July 2007, a suicide attack involving a car bomb took place at the Temple of Awwam, a popular tourist attraction in Marib Governorate, Yemen. The attack was perpetrated by al-Qaeda in Yemen, partly as a means to demonstrate its resurgence since the previous year. A cell of militants recruited and trained 21-year-old Abdu Muhammad Sa'ad Ahmed Ruhayqah to drive a explosive-laden car into a convoy of tourists from Spain who were set to visit the temple. On the day of the bombing, Ruhayqah parked his car by the road leading to the temple and then rammed it into the four-vehicle tourist convoy as it was exiting the site. Eight tourists and two Yemeni drivers were killed, while an additional five tourists, two drivers and four security personnel were left injured.
A joint investigation into the bombing was initiated by the Audiencia Nacional in Spain with participation from Yemeni investigators. An 11-man al-Qaeda cell was publicly identified in August by Yemeni authorities as the perpetrators of the attack, none of whom were in custody by that point. As time went on, cooperation between Spanish and Yemeni authorities had waned, leading to the Audiencia Nacional closing their case in 2011. Raids undertaken by Yemeni security forces had killed several suspects connected in the bombing, including Egyptian militant Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar as well as Ali bin Ali Douha, head of the cell in Marib responsible for it. In 2015, an alleged former al-Qaeda informant claimed he had warned the Yemeni government of the attack multiple times prior to its occurrence but was ignored.
The attack was met with condemnation from Yemeni and Spanish officials and demonstrations against it from people in both countries. It had a notable negative impact on tourism in Yemen, and was indicative of the renewed threat posed by al-Qaeda.
Background
Al-Qaeda resurgence
After years of relative dormancy, al-Qaeda in Yemen experienced a resurgence through a prison escape in February 2006 which freed several militants. The jihadists soon began organizing attacks in the country, leading to a failed pair of suicide attacks against two oil facilities in September of that year, one of them in Marib Governorate. The killing of Fawaz al-Rabiee the next month by security forces led to Nasir al-Wuhayshi becoming the primary leader of the group through a phase of reorganization. Wuhayshi appointed emirs from prominent tribes to lead the planning of attacks at the local level. For Marib, he selected Ali bin Ali Douha, a former prisoner and member of the influential Abidah tribe, as their local emir.
A three-man cell in Marib led by Douha assassinated chief criminal investigator Ali Mahmud Qasaylah on 29 March 2007, the Yemeni government paying little attention. In late June, the group issued several statements in the first public announcement of its revival. One of those statements, published through opposition news website al-shoura.net and attributed to Wuhayshi, swore vengeance against the government and listed four demands for it: the release of imprisoned militants, authorization to travel to Iraq, the end of cooperation with anti-Islamic countries, and the administration of Sharia, and threatened to take action if they were not completed.
Tourism in Yemen
At the time of the attack, tourism was a relatively unpopular industry in Yemen. Marib attracted a particularly negative reputation due to numerous tourist kidnapping incidents in the 1990s, although most of them did not involve violence. The Spanish foreign ministry included Marib in a travel advisory for several areas in Yemen, warning its citizens of travelling unless accompanied by a local guide and military escort. Despite this, Marib began to see a small increase in tourism as security incidents became rarer.
One of the most popular tourist attractions in Marib and in Yemen at large was the Temple of Awwam, a nearly 3,000 year old archaeological structure built during the ancient kingdom of Sheba and associated with the Queen of Sheba. The Yemeni government had been attempting to further promote the site since it had been renovated years prior.
Bombing
Planning
The Douha cell began lobbying for another operation shortly after the assassination of Qasaylah in March. Wuhayshi and Qasim al-Raymi decided to target foreign tourists, rationalised through a supposed edict from the Islamic prophet Muhammad to "expel the infidels from the Arabian peninsula", just as it was used by Osama bin Laden. The Temple of Awwam was selected as the site for the attack due to their being a single exit on the road to the area, leaving any tourist convoy close together and highly vulnerable. According to a former informant, the bombing was meant to be a demonstration that the al-Qaeda was still operational in Yemen and was capable of attacking targets associated with the United States and other nations supporting the war on terror. He also claimed that Raymi knew the exact movements of the tourists who were targeted.
A government investigation determined that an 11-man cell (including the suicide bomber) was responsible for facilitating the attack. The bomber was identified as Abdu Muhammad Sa'ad Ahmed Ruhayqah, a 21-year-old Yemeni man born in Mazhar district, Raymah Governorate. Ruhayqah had been living in the Musayk neighbourhood of Sanaa, an area noted for being concentrated with Islamists, when he was recruited to conduct the bombing by Hamza Ali Saleh al-Dhayani. Authorities later claimed that Ammar al-Wa'eli was also involved recruiting in recruiting Ruhayqah, both of the men acting on the orders of Hamza al-Quaiti.
Dhayani transported Ruhayqah to Wadi Abidah in Marib, where the militants responsible for planning and executing the attack resided. These individuals were identified as Wuhayshi, Raymi, Quaiti, Douha, Wa'eli, and Mohammed Saleh al-Kazemi. Douha and Naji Ali Saleh Jaradan, both members of the al-Hutayk subtribe of Abidah, provided refuge for Ruhayqah near Marib city as they planned the attack, most likely in the villages of al-Rashid Manif in Abidah tribal territory.Saudi national Nayif Mohammed al-Qahtani was also reportedly involved in sheltering Ruhayqah, while the Egyptian Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar provided the cell with logistical support.
Ruhayqah did not know how to drive when he was recruited. He received lessons from the militants for weeks in numerous wadis of Marib until he was adequately prepared. Dhayani, who was a taxi driver, reportedly allowed Ruhayqah to use his own car to do so. Al-Qaeda filmed several propaganda recordings of Ruhayqah in the lead-up to the bombing, including his last will and testament.
Attack
At around mid-morning on 2 July, a group of Spanish tourists embarked from Sanaa to Marib Governorate, where they toured Marib city and the Marib Dam before heading to the Temple of Awwam. The 13 tourists had arrived in Yemen on 30 June in a tour package organised by Basque travel agency Banao. They were travelling a convoy of four vehicles, the middle two occupied by them with Yemeni security vehicles at the front and end. A military patrol had stopped the group as they were travelling to the temple and accompanied them thereon.
After the tourists had arrived at the Temple of Awwam, Ruhayqah parked a 1982 Toyota Land Cruiser by the Marib–Safer road adjacent to the temple from which the convoy entered. Investigators found that the car used in the bombing had been filled with medical oxygen tanks, which were the primary contributor to the blast after the initial detonation by TNT packets. Also stored in the vehicle were multiple 132mm shells to cause further damage.
Ruhayqah prepared to start his car as he saw most of the tourists boarding their vehicles and taking their last photographs. At around 14:30 GMT, just as the final tourist had boarded the convoy and the first car had turned onto the road, Ruhayqah rammed the car bomb into the two middle vehicles used by the tourists. The blast, about 50 metres away from the temple itself, scattered vehicle components and body parts around the road.
Describing the scene from the third vehicle, one wounded survivor said "I saw that the first car was burning, in the second one the people looked pretty bad, and in mine everyone was shouting... I couldn't see what was happening in the fourth as I ducked because they were shooting."
Casualties
Excluding the suicide bomber, 10 people were killed in the attack: eight Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers. Of the Spaniards killed, two were from Zarautz in Gipuzkoa province: 54-year-old Mikel Essery, a prolific traveller who led the expedition, and 24-year-old Magie Álvarez Calleja, who accompanied Arruti to receive experience in leading travel groups. Two married couples were killed: Gabriel Tortosa Ortega, an engineer from Badalona, Barcelona, and María Isabel Arranz Bocos, a teacher from Burgos, along with Antonio Pomés Tallo, a retired banker from Nou Barris, Barcelona, and María Teresa Pérez Ubago, a teacher from Burgos. The two others killed were 54-year-old Marta Borrell Puig, a teacher from Girona, and Amurrio, Álava, native María Asunción Vitorica.
Five other tourists, two drivers and four security personnel were reported as being wounded. The former consisted of Julia Vilaró, a family doctor from Barcelona, María Estíbaliz of Biscay, María Begoña Larrabeiti, Eva María de Mena, and Esteve Masó, husband of Marta Borrell. Masó managed to avoid much of the blast as he was bending downwards in his seat while placing a camera in his bag. The only injured tourist who was not immediately repatriated was Vitorica, who was in a critical condition due to suffering severe head injuries from the bombing. Vitorica underwent surgery twice within 24 hours of the bombing at the al-Thawra hospital in Sanaa. A Spanish aircraft carrying two of her sisters and a neurosurgeon to assist in her treatment arrived in Yemen on 4 July. She died on 14 July after suffering brain death two days prior.
Investigation
Audiencia Nacional judge Fernando Andreu announced that Spanish legal authorities would conduct an investigation into the attack the day after it took place. Interior minister Rashad al-Alimi said the Yemeni government would cooperate with Spanish investigators. Seven officers from the Joint Police Support Team for Major Terrorist Attacks, composed of TEDAX experts from the National Police and Civil Guard, were sent to Yemen on 4 July to collaborate with Yemeni authorities in the investigation. By then, the Scientific police was already operating in the country. On 6 July, Spanish officials confirmed that a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unit from the local US embassy had been dispatched to participate in the investigation, primarily to evaluate any potential connections between the perpetrators and insurgent groups in Iraq.
Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh held a press conference discussing the bombing on 3 July. He told reporters that security forces had received information pointing towards an al-Qaeda attack four days prior to the bombing but did not know what was the exact target. Foreign and national interests underwent additional security procedures, but not tourist sites. He claimed the investigation had so far determined that the bomber was a non-Yemeni Arab national and that security forces were prepared to hunt down the perpetrators. He announced a 15 million rial ($82,000 USD) reward for information leading to their killing or capture.
Yemeni investigators spent several days at the site of the attack collecting the remains of those killed. Marib police chief Mohammed al-Ghodra reported later in July that authorities from both countries were coordinating DNA analysis of the remains to deduce the identity of the bomber. On 2 August, the Yemeni state-ran Saba News Agency reported that authorities had positively identified the bomber as Ruhayqah through cross-referenced DNA testing of his remains with that of his relatives. The identities of the 10 individuals responsible for the bombing were also publicly announced. None of them had been arrested by that point.
With Andreu heading the investigation, the Spanish team in Yemen completed an "exhaustive forensic report" on the bombing. A letter rogatory sent by the Audiencia Nacional received a response from their Yemeni counterparts which listed Ruhayqah and eight other individuals as the culprits of the attack. Of the eight, six were killed between August 2007 and November 2008, while Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli was set to be tried in absentia in February 2010. The names listed reportedly differed from those provided to the media. Andreu and prosecutor Ana Noé sent more letters rogatory to Yemen for further clarification but they received no response. Facing zero cooperation from Yemeni authorities, the case was provisionally shelved by the Audiencia Nacional in that year on the request of Noé, with none of the perpetrators facing the court.
Raids
As part of a sweep by authorities across the country which netted 20 Islamists in relation to the bombing, Yemeni security forces raided the residence of Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar in Sanaa on 5 July. Dewidar was a former Afghan Arab who settled in Yemen during the mid-1990s, unable to return to his native Egypt after being convicted in absentia of being a terrorist during the Returnees from Albania trial. He was previously the subject of an interrogation and a search warrant on 24 June for suspected links to al-Qaeda, but was released due to insufficient evidence. Neighbours characterized him as an ailing man working a regular job and struggling to make ends meet. Yemeni intelligence had been monitoring him for years prior to the raid.