Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an Iranian diplomat in Yemen, was kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants and held hostage for the next two years.

Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an administrative staff member of the Iranian Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, was kidnapped by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in the Yemeni capital on 21 July 2013. Nikbakht was abducted while leaving his home in Sana'a by a gunman who was a member of al-Qaeda. He was held hostage for two years and released in March 2015 in exchange for five al-Qaeda leaders. He returned home safely on March 5, 2015.

Al-Qaeda, is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate. Its membership is mostly composed of Arabs but also includes people from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the U.S. and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing, and the September 11 attacks.