German children held in Yemen appear in video: sources

BERLIN — After months without a trace, three German children kidnapped in June in Yemen have resurfaced in a new video, but the tape featured no sign of their parents, security sources said.

Officials who asked not to be named confirmed a report in the daily Bild saying the images, apparently recorded recently by the abductors, indicated at least that the three children aged one, three and five were still alive.

The German government now has a copy of the video, Bild added.

"The children seemed exhausted," a high-ranking German official was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The German government declined to comment.

The family of five was abducted in northern Yemen in June along with two German Bible students and a South Korean who were shot and killed soon after.

The kidnappers are believed to have links to the Islamist militant network Al-Qaeda.

Since then, there had been no sign of technician Johannes H., his wife Sabine, both 36 at the time they were seized, or their three children.

There has been no word either of a Briton also seized at the time in the Saada region, the stronghold of Shiite rebels at war with the Yemeni government.

The German government has dispatched former ambassador Juergen Chrobog, who was himself kidnapped in Yemen while on holiday in 2005, as a mediator.

More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Yemen in the past 15 years, with most being freed unharmed.

A Japanese engineer was released in November after nine days as a hostage held by tribesmen near the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
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