아프리카ㆍ중동

Four Korean tourists were killed by a suicide bombing in the southern part of Yemen in March 2009. Later in June one Korean lady was kidnapped and killed in the northern area of Yemen. International and Korean media and even specialists on terrorism and the Middle East have mentioned that these incidents were committed by al-Qaeda. However, it seems that al-Qaeda-related explanations may be limited to look into who is behind the attacks and why they happened. This thesis hypothesizes that all the recent terrorist attacks in the Middle East cannot be attributed to radical Islamist movements. It is very crucial that we should pay attention on tribalism in the Middle EAst. Tribalism in Yemen is a historic and social phenomenon. Over the past three decades, the observer could realize that Yemeni tribes got involved in civil wars and revenges, and this in turn led to exacerbating the tribal violence which is still pursued up until now. Most tribal communities are likely to have a military wing armed with its weapons they buy from the markets of weapons left after conflicts between republican and monarch supporters. The tribal communities are found to keep their weapons to protect themselves from wars, revenges and racial conflicts prevailing the tribal environment.