On August 16, 1998, Yemen's only known serial killer, Abdallah al-Hubal, was gunned down by police after he killed an officer and wounded three others. The killer -- who authorities have sought for murdering 12 people -- was trapped by police in the town of Beit al-Fakieh in the Hodeidah governorate west of the capital Sanaa.
Hubal, who was in his forties, began a series of murders in the former Marxist south Yemen before the 1990 union with the conservative north, killing seven people. He disappeared after a short prison term in the southern port city of Aden, but surfaced again a week ago when he murdered a couple in Beit al-Fakieh. Officials said police trapped him after he killed three other people apparently to silence them about the double murder.