Aden:
Armed tribesmen kidnapped two Indian employees of the international Red Cross in southern Yemen on Wednesday, in the second such incident in the area this week, a spokeswoman for the organisation and local sources told AFP.
"Gunmen intercepted two Indian Red Cross workers in Jaar (in Abyan province) and led them at gunpoint to a mountainous region," said a member of a pro-government local militia controlling the town.
Dibeh Fakhr, Middle East spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), contacted by telephone in Geneva, confirmed the kidnapping of the two employees and said negotiations were underway to secure their release.
The source from the Popular Resistance Committees, local militias which backed the army in chasing Al-Qaeda militants out of Abyan last year, said the militia's deputy chief, Ali al-Sayed, was leading the negotiations.
"We expect their release in the coming hours," said another local chief, requesting anonymity, adding that the ICRC employees "were on a humanitarian mission in the town."
The kidnappers belong to the Marakisha tribe whose gunmen kidnapped two Egyptian technicians working at a cement factory in Abyan on Monday, local sources said.
A local official on Tuesday said the tribesmen were demanding the release of a member of their tribe jailed seven years ago on murder charges.
Hundreds of people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, almost all of who have been freed unharmed.
Most kidnappings of foreigners are carried out by members of Yemen's powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government.