SANAA, Yemen, May 22 (UPI) -- A U.S. warship docked at Hodeida, Yemen, Tuesday to begin evacuating U.S. nationals as violence throughout the country racheted up, Yemeni authorities said.
The action came in the wake of an attack Sunday in Hodeida on U.S. contractors. Mareb Press said the gunmen involved likely were linked to al-Qaida in Yemen.
The Yemen Post reported Tuesday the contractors were in Yemen to train the local coast guard as part of a military assistance agreement with the Pentagon.
Violence against foreign nationals is on the increase in Yemen, al-Masdar Online said on Tuesday.
A Spanish policeman who had vanished on his way to the airport for a trip home was found dead. Al-Masdar quoted anonymous sources as saying authorities could not establish the cause of death. A police investigator told the Web site al-Sahwa the victim had been found "with a firearm at his side."
The Socialist Forum said the suicide theory did not match witnesses' accounts of a kidnapping by unidentified gunmen.
