REUTERS - Three women thought to be among people kidnapped in recent days have been found dead in north Yemen, a government and a tribal source said on Monday.

The three women found near the Saada area were believed to have been shot, the two sources said. It was unclear whether the three were part of a group of nine foreigners—seven Germans, a Briton and a Korean—kidnapped last week in the Saada area.

Separate media reports from the region said seven foreign hostages had been found dead. Those reports could not be confirmed by Reuters.

Kidnappings of Western tourists or workers is fairly common in Yemen with most incidents resolved peacefully in exchange for ransom or concessions from authorities.

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, struggles with a revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and intensified al Qaeda militancy, which have unsettled Western governments and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter.

Increasing unrest has raised concerns Yemen could slip toward chaos and provide a base of operations for al Qaeda or pirates operating in the Indian ocean.

On Sunday, Yemen arrested a man described as al Qaeda’s top financer in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the Saudi national Hassan Hussein Alwan.

Yemeni tribesmen in Saada on Friday released a group of 24 doctors and nurses they abducted a day earlier, demanding the authorities release two prisoners, a government official said.

The medics, most of whom were Yemenis but also included Egyptians, Indians and Filipinos, were working at a Saudi-backed hospital in the northern Saada region.

Saada is where in 2004 tribesmen of a Shi’ite sect led by members of the Houthi clan began an intermittent rebellion against the government in protest at what they say is economic and religious discrimination.