Body of Spaniard killed in Yemen attack arrives in Spain

MADRID (AFP) - The body of a Spanish tourist killed along with nine others in a suicide bombing in Yemen on July 2 arrived back in Spain yesterday.

Maria Asuncion Vitorica Arbaiza died Friday from injuries sustained in the blast in Marib, 170 kilometres (105 miles) east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into the convoy Vitorica was travelling in with fellow Spanish tourists as they were wrapping up a tour of an ancient temple in Marib.

The bombing was the worst attack on Westerners in the Arabian peninsula country since Al-Qaeda extremists struck the US destroyer Cole in the southern port of Aden in 2000, killing 17 US sailors.

The undersecretary of state for foreign affairs, Luis Calvo, met the coffin with members of the victim's family at Torrejon air base outside Madrid Sunday afternoon. The body was to be transferred to her hometown in the northern Basque region ahead of a funeral scheduled for Monday.