SANAA (AFP) – A German woman and her parents kidnapped by tribesmen were freed on Friday after mediation ended their five-day hostage ordeal in remote mountains near the Yemeni capital, a tribal source said.

""The three Germans were released on Friday at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) after mediation by a tribal dignitary from the Bani Dhabyan region"" of the abductors, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The German woman working in Yemen and her visiting parents were seized last week during an excursion in the mountainous region, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the capital Sanaa.
After their release the three ""are now in the house of the mediator, Sheikh Abdel Qawi Ahmed Obed al-Shuraif, in Bani Dhabyan,"" the source said. The sheikh was to hand them over to Yemeni authorities.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the hostages' release, and said late Friday that they were at the German embassy in Sanaa.
""I am very relieved that the three German nationals who were abducted in Yemen are free again,"" he said in a statement.
""They are doing well under the circumstances. I thank all those who contributed to their release,"" including Yemeni and German authorities.
The foreign ministry in Berlin said Steinmeier had called Yemeni premier Ali Mohammed Mujawar to thank him on behalf of the German government.
A tribal official had said initially that one of the kidnappers was demanding 200,000 dollars (144,000 euros) to compensate him for lost land. The kidnapper also demanded that police release his brother and son who were arrested four months ago over a land dispute.
The man behind the kidnapping was named as Abd Rabbo Saleh Al-Tam.
Unconfirmed reports on a Yemeni Internet site, Marebnews, said the tribal mediator had promised Tam a ransom of 100,000 dollars in return for the hostages and an assurance that he would not face prosecution.
He was also promised that the case of the two prisoners would be reviewed, according to Marebnews.
Complicating the case on Thursday, a tribal source told AFP that the tribesmen holding the family hostage were also demanding the release of two Yemenis detained in the United States for supporting Al-Qaeda.
The two men, who are from the same tribe as the kidnappers, are still being held in U.S. custody despite an appeals court overturning their convictions on terrorism charges in October.
Sheikh Mohammed Ali al-Moayad and Mohammed Zayed were arrested in Germany in 2003 and extradited to the United States, where Moayad was initially sentenced to 75 years in prison and Zayed to 45 years.
Yemen has repeatedly called for the release of Moayad, 60, and Zayed, 34, who after the court ruling were put under the jurisdiction of another judge and could be retried.