Yemeni soldiers confessed to kidnapping four Czech tourists in the capital Sana'a last Sunday, saying the kidnapping aimed to draw the attention of the government to the case of a brother of one of them being detained on land dispute murder charges.

Appearing at the Penal Court specializing in terrorist cases on Tuesday, three soldiers out of five, tow still at large, said they exchanged fire with the police who were escorting the tourists in Manakha district, but the police could rescue the Czechs.

After we failed to take the foreigners as hostage, we escaped to the Haima Dakhiliya district where tribal elders caught and handed us to the authorities, they said.

One of the kidnappers, Ahmed Al-Walidi from the first armoured battalion in Sana'a, said he was drugged by qat and went for the kidnapping just for the sake of friendship with his accomplices.

The two others were identified as Ali Al-Khalidi, a soldier in Saada and who planned the kidnap for his brother, and Abdul Salam Al-Muafa, a soldier in Dhamar.

After the confessions, the court ordered to hire a lawyer for the defendants for the next hearings, first of which start next Tuesday.