By Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
December 30, 2002
(AgapePress) - The three medical personnel killed in Monday's terrorist attack in Yemen were there as part of a Southern Baptist missionary outreach.
According to news reports, a suspected Muslim extremist burst into a room where a morning meeting was taking place and opened fire. Three Americans were killed and another was seriously wounded.
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The hospital where the four worked is owned and operated by the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board. Wendy Norville is a spokesperson for the Richmond, Virginia-based agency. She says they are shocked and saddened by the incident.
"We were saddened by this," Norville says. "Of course, it's always a tragedy [when there is] a needless loss of life. These were faithful folks who have given their lives serving their fellow man in another country, and we were saddened to learn of their deaths and the injury."
Killed were hospital administrator William Koehn of Arlington, Texas; business manager Kathleen Gariety of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin; and nurse Martha Myers of Montgomery, Alabama. Also injured in the shooting was Donald Caswell, a pharmacist from Levelland, Texas.
Norville says missionaries know that their work comes with certain risks. "They are dedicated to the task that they feel, taking the love of God all around the world and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ," she says. "They're willing to take risks to do that, and they put their lives on the line everyday just in the work they do."
Norville says at this point, it is uncertain what impact the attack will have on the future of Southern Baptist missionaries in Yemen. It is reported that there have been negotiations in recent months aimed at transferring control of the hospital to a local charity.
The official Yemeni news agency Saba reports the 35-year-old gunman was later arrested. Under interrogation, according to the report, he confessed that he plotted the attack in collaboration with another murder on Saturday carried out by a member of Yemen's fundamentalist Islamic Reform Party.
© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.
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