Last 4 Sets of Remains From Cole Recovered

Oct. 20 -- Rescuers have recovered the final four sets of remains of sailors killed in the bombing of the USS Cole.

Meanwhile, investigators have widened their probe into the blast to Saudi Arabia and a far eastern Yemeni province, Yemeni officials said Thursday.

The remains that were removed from the ship will be flown home soon, Navy officials in Washington said. Thirteen bodies already had been flown the United States.

The recovery of the remains came as FBI director Louis Freeh arrived in Yemen, held talks with President Ali Abdullah Saleh and toured the U.S. warship, which was attacked Oct. 12 as it arrived to refuel.

He told a news conference that it was far too early to speculate who may have sponsored or be responsible for the bombing, which killed 17 sailors and injured 39. “We are looking at this with an open mind,” he said.

He said determining exactly who carried out the attack “will be governed by facts and forensics,” adding that “we are far from making even preliminaryjudgments on this.”

Freeh also repeated several times that the FBI’s presence in Yemen is temporary and that the U.S. force is a “junior partner” to the Yemeni police. Wednesday, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said the FBI was going to set up a permanent presence in Yemen, causing angry rumors throughout the Arab world that Yemen’s president denied Wednesday night.

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“The investigation is being run by the Yemeni police and security authorities. We are there as a partner … but we are the junior partner,” Freeh said.

Freeh met with Saleh and with sailors on the Cole, and will leave Yemen later Thursday.

The Investigation

The FBI is focusing on two buildings in its investigation: one, about 20 miles from where the Cole was berthed, where bomb-making equipment was found on Tuesday; another small house is about 12 miles from the Cole.

The apartment where bomb-making equipment was found also yielded documents they believe originated in the eastern Yemeni province of Hadhramaut, Yemeni security officials said Thursday.