Yemen finds key facts on US ship blast

DUBAI - Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh said his country had uncovered important information on the bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden last week that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Witnesses have said that two men aboard a small craft which drew alongside the Cole stood at attention before the blast.

Some U.S. experts have estimated that the small boat could have been carrying up to 225 kg of high explosives.

"We were able to discover the car that transported the boat, and the launcher that lowered the boat, and we found the workshop that made the engine and the house that the people who carried out the crime were living in," Saleh told Qatar's satellite television al- Jazeera.

"The boat came from (the port of) Hodeidah, the engine came from Aden," Saleh said.

"The attack had been planned for a long time".

Asked about media reports that the two men were Saudi nationals, Saleh said: "One witness said the accent was a Saudi accent...They had to be Arabs because witnesses said they were performing (Muslim) prayers...They may be Yemenis or other Arabs," Saleh said.

Saleh said samples taken from the destroyer had been sent to the United States for analysis for the type of explosive used.

He said the United States had told Yemen that the type of explosive used was only available in Israel, the United States and some Arab states which he declined to name.

Asked if any country or organisation was behind the attack, Saleh said: "We cannot judge. Let us continue our investigations. We have uncovered the initial information and we will uncover the rest."

Asked if he feared a U.S. attack on some areas in Yemen in retaliation for the blasting of the destroyer, Saleh said: "There are some fundamentalist elements in Yemen but they do not have any military bases or headquarters. They are a few individuals who had come from Afghanistan."

He said most of them were deported several years ago and only a few individuals remained who were under surveillance.

U.S. officials have said that Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, wanted in the United States for allegedly masterminding the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, was among those being investigated for the attack against the USS Cole.

- REUTERS

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