Wadi Dawan

Wadi Dawan
300px
Wadi Dawan Location in Yemen
Coordinates:
Country	Yemen
Governorate	Hadhramaut
Time zone	Yemen Standard Time (UTC+3)

Wadi Dawan is a town and desert valley in central Yemen. Located in the Hadhramaut Governorate, it is noted for its mud brick buildings.

Overview

On January 18, 2008, an ambush attack on Belgian tourists traveling in a convoy through the valley took place. A convoy of four jeeps carrying 15 tourists to Shibam were ambushed by gunmen in a hidden pickup truck. Two Belgian women, Claudine Van Caillie, of Bruges, 63, and Katrine Glorie, from East Flanders, 54, as well as two Yemenis, a driver and a guide, were killed; another man was also heavily wounded, several others suffered minor wounds. The tourists were repatriated to Belgium on January 19, except the injured man, who remained in Sana'a.

In the wake of the attack, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karel De Gucht originally rejected that Al-Qaeda might be responsible, explaining that although the possibility could be avoided, internecine disputes and latent Islamism also to be taken into account. A number of arrests were made on January 21.