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Aden, Yemen (AP) - Aden's Christ Church, presided over by an American pastor, has always taken security seriously - kidnapping foreigners and ransoming them for vehicles or services from the Yemeni government is practically a tribal tradition.
The threat, however, has changed and deepened since the USS Cole was bombed as it sat in Aden harbor Oct. 12, killing 17 U.S. sailors. Many fear militants will target anything Western or seen as representing the Yemeni government, which is expected to bring to trial this month up to eight suspects in the Cole bombing.
On New Year's Day, the target was Christ Church.
A bomb shattered 30 feet of the concrete wall that surrounds the Anglican church compound and riveted shards of window glass into the walls of the staff living quarters. Nobody was injured.
Only minor injuries were reported in four other strikes Jan. 1 and 2 in Aden, including a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a hotel and a bomb blast near the government news agency.
The suspects - in the Cole bombing and in the smaller blasts since - are Islamic militants with causes, not Yemeni tribesmen with complaints. In tribal snatchings, Western hostages usually have been treated as honored guests and released unharmed once demands have been negotiated and met.
The kidnappings also target other Yemenis. On Wednesday, members of the Bani Dhabian tribe seized the son of the governor of San'a, snatching him from the streets of the capital. Security officials said Thursday the kidnappers demanded the release of six jailed tribesmen as ransom for Mohammed Hussein al-Masoori.
Islamists have been influencing Yemeni society for years, but only rarely have threatened foreigners. All five suspects arrested thus far in the smaller explosions are members of the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army. Investigators of the Cole bombing also suspect Muslim militants, but they have focused on others who may have ties to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), an exiled Saudi millionaire allegedly behind past anti-American terror strikes.
''Always with a Western presence, there are people who are not welcoming of that,'' said Christ Church's pastor, Roger Bruggink of Bend, Ore.
Bruggink, 64, was celebrating the holidays in the United States when the church bomb went off. He quickly returned and, like others, plans to stay.
Just after the attack on the U.S. destroyer, Bruggink said he was advised to cancel services for a while. He refused.
''We don't want to send the message that we're afraid or that the people are bad here,'' he said.
The original building dates to 1963, when Aden was under British rule. The church was abandoned when the British left in 1967 and damaged in Yemen's 1994 civil war. It was rebuilt just four years ago.
Additional Yemeni police and internal security officers keep watch on the church these days, especially during Friday and Sunday services, which are attended mostly by expatriates.
While its religious outreach is directed at expatriates, the church offers medical care and English lessons to its mostly Muslim neighbors. More than half of about 25 people employed by the church are Yemenis. The concrete church, staff quarters, community center and clinic, all encircled by a wall, sit on a residential street surrounded by rugged mountains.
Yemeni neighbors helped rebuild the wall after the bombing and provide extra eyes and ears for security.
Salah Abbas Nagi, a 45-year-old father of eight children, lives across the street from the church compound and lost part of his roof in the attack. He fears that with the trial coming up the church could become a target again.
''I respect the church very much - they are teaching my daughter English,'' he says, nodding down at 8-year-old Hamama. ''I feel like I must protect them. It's my duty to guard them.''
No date has been set for the Cole trial, but it is expected this month. As days go by, security is tightened throughout the city.
Soldiers at checkpoints ask drivers where they are going and why. Major hotels frequented by Westerners look like fortresses with soldiers posted outside and police watching the lobbies. At the hotel where U.S. investigators and embassy personnel stay, arriving vehicles are searched for explosives.
The U.S. Embassy has warned Americans to be extra cautious, vary their routes and keep a low profile.
Still, if somebody is determined to cause damage or injury, all the security in the world won't stop them, said Peter Tolley, 53, of Tauranga, New Zealand. Tolley, a nurse at the Christ Church clinic, and his wife Sheryl were sleeping when the bomb sent flying glass through their apartment.
He said he's still willing to extend his one-year commitment to the clinic when it ends in August.
''If we were to run for home, that
would stop the good work from being done,'' Tolley said.
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