Police say the bodies were found in Saada Province and appeared to have suffered bullet wounds. German officials had initially said they could not confirm the reports but Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday confirmed that two German women are now assumed to have been killed.

The women disappeared three days ago in the restive Saada region in the northwest. According to Yemeni officials they were abducted by rebels who have been fighting the government in Saada for five years.

The German group included a couple, three children and two female nurses. A British engineer and a female South Korean teacher are also among those kidnapped. They belong to an international organization which has been working for over three decades at a hospital some 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of the capital, according to Yemeni authorities.

South Korea also confirms killing

The South Korean government has confirmed that one of the bodies found was a South Korean national. Foreign Ministry spokesman Choe Jong-hyun told reporters Tuesday that the government "cannot contain its anger and shock." It called the killing a "crime against humanity."

No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and the killings so far. However, local officials said the foreigners were taken hostage by members of the Huthi Zaidi rebel group, which has been fighting the government since 2004.

The Saada government and Huthi rebels signed a Qatari-brokered peace deal last June but there has been repeated wrangling about its implementation. Kidnappings of foreigners are a frequent occurrence in Yemen as tribesmen often use them to twist the government's arm in local disputes. More than 200 foreigners have been abducted over the past 15 years.

Most hostages in the past had been freed unharmed. In December 1998 three Britons and an Australian seized by Islamist militants were killed when security forces stormed the kidnappers' hideout.

ai/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn