Al-Qaeda Terrorists Claim They Killed US Teacher In Yemen – OpEd
By Jim Kouri
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed in a text message sent out on Sunday that it murdered an English-language teacher from the United States in southern Yemen according to a police source in Israel.
“Killing the American teacher by our members is an obvious message to the United States to stop interfering in Yemen’s internal affairs. This was a retaliatory attack for killing dozens of our fighters by the American jets,” AQAP allegedly stated in a text message they sent out to U.S. officials and the news media.
The victim is identified as American national Johl Schrim. He was the director of the English-language department at the Swedish Institute in the city. The Israeli source said that the attackers had managed to escape after conducting the drive-by shooting.
Other than claiming responsibility, the AQAP message failed to provide details of the killing.
According to Public Safety Examiner’s Israeli source, two gunmen riding a motorcycle shot dead the U.S. national Schrim, who was on his way to work at the Swedish Language Institute in Taiz, Yemen’s second-largest city.
The Yemeni Ministry of Defense posted a brief statement on its web site claiming that its “security forces were hunting for suspected al-Qaeda gunmen who killed the American national [in the southern city].”
On Friday, Yemeni police reported that suspected AQAP terrorists kidnapped a Swiss woman who was working as a language teacher in the city of Hodeida and then transferred their female hostage to Shabwa province.
Foreigners are regularly kidnapped in Yemen by al-Qaeda and tribesmen who support the Islamist group in the several parts of that Arab nation.
According to several Examiner reports, AQAP terrorists and associates commit kidnapping and murder to force the still weak government to give in to their demands. While some hostages are executed — such as the Yemeni intelligence director — most of the abducted foreigners are freed unharmed after obtaining a ransom.
