Qaida Suspects Kidnap Swiss Woman

Suspected al-Qaida militants have kidnapped a Swiss woman and are holding her in the southeastern province of Shabwa, a provincial official told Agence France Presse on Friday.

"A Swiss woman was abducted in Hodeida (on the Red Sea coast) by armed men who moved her to Shabwa province," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"According to our information, al-Qaida is responsible for the abduction," he added.

According to the official, the kidnappers are "demanding the release of two al-Qaida militants detained in Hodeida." He gave no further details.

Shabwa is a stronghold of loyalists of the jihadists' local affiliate al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, whose militants fight under the banner of Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law).

Last May, the militants took control of Zinjibar, capital of neighboring Abyan province, and several other southern towns, triggering months of deadly fighting with government troops.

More than 200 people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, many of them by members of the Arabian Peninsula's powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips with the authorities.

Almost all of those kidnapped were later freed unharmed.