Five bodies were found in an area in North Yemen – where seven Germans, a British national and a South Korean were kidnapped last June – are believed to be Somalis, the Yemeni Defense Ministry's news website  quoted Hussein Hazeb, the governor of Al-Jawf province, as saying on Monday.

He said that the bodies were brought to Sanaa for DNA testing to confirm their origin.

The website said that five bodies were recovered, rather than the four initially reported.

Earlier on Monday, an unnamed Yemeni security official told AFP that the police found the bodies of a woman, two men and a child in Al-Jawf on Saturday.

A tribal leader from the province said, "The bodies were in a state of decomposition, but they appeared to be foreigners."

-AFP/NOW Lebanon