SANA, Yemen — Al-Qaida’s Yemen branch said Thursday that it killed an American teacher because he was trying to spread Christianity in the mainly Muslim Arab nation.
Joel Shrum, a 29-year-old native of Mount Joy, Pa., was gunned down Sunday in the central city of Taiz, where he had been living with his wife and two sons. He was studying Arabic and teaching English at a language institute.
The claim of responsibility, which was posted on a militant website, comes as the terror network increasingly has sought to exploit the political turmoil in the Arab world’s most impoverished nation.
“It was God’s gift for the mujahedeen to kill the American Joel Shrum who was actively proselytizing under the cover of teaching in Taiz,” said the statement by al-Qaida-inthe-Arabian-Peninsula, as the terrorist network’s Yemen branch is formally known.
The slain teacher had worked at the International Training and Development Center, which was established in the 1970s and is one of the oldest foreign-language institutes in Yemen.
A text message that circulated by mobile phone in Yemen after his killing said “holy warriors” had killed “a senior missionary” in Taiz, the country’s second-most-populous city after the capital, Sana.
Shrum’s parents, who live in Harrisburg, Pa., say he went to Yemen in 2009 to learn Arabic, not to proselytize, and became passionate about teaching business skills to Yemenis.
A colleague at the language center, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said Shrum used to encourage Yemenis to stay true to their Islamic faith and did not try to convert people to Christianity.
He said Shrum not only taught Yemenis English but also would often buy students books and assist them in learning computer skills.
Hundreds of youth activists and other protesters marched Tuesday through Taiz demanding justice for the Shrum family. They carried photos of Shrum as they marched through the city’s streets, chanting, “Yemen is not a place for terrorism. We love you, Joel!”
Al-Qaida-in-the-Arabian-Peninsula said it would not allow Christian proselytizing to continue in Yemen and threatened to attack other U.S. citizens and interests if the United States does not stop aiding Israel, viewed as an enemy by most Arab nations.
“The United States, its infidel subjects and interests, are legitimate targets for our jihad until it ends its war against Islam and Muslims, starting with its aid for Jews in Palestine and recurring crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen,” the statement said.
The statement’s authenticity could not be verified, but it was issued by al-Fajr, the media arm of al-Qaida, and posted on a website that routinely carries militant statements.
Meanwhile, military and security officials said Thursday that navy ships shelled suspected al-Qaida positions in the southern province of Abyan, killing 29 militants.
They said the rocket and artillery barrage, spread over a 24-hour period that ended early Thursday, struck purported al-Qaida targets around the city of Zinjibar, Abyan’s provincial capital.
The officials also said the militants killed execution-style a senior security officer who was kidnapped Wednesday in the town of Mukkala in the southeast Hadramout province. The body of the officer, Lt. Col. Farag Said Ben Qahtan, was found in farmlands after a gunbattle between the kidnappers and security forces trying to rescue him.
Qahtan’s body was decapitated, the officials said. They had no word on the motive behind the kidnapping.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to news media.
Information for this article was contributed from Cairo by Maamoun Youssef of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 03/23/2012