Investigators Look for Clues in Yemen

Oct. 13 -- U.S. investigators are in the Middle Eastern port city of Aden, where an attack on a Navy destroyer left seven dead, 10 others missing and presumed dead and 38 injured.

The Navy released the names of the confirmed and presumed dead today while the grim task of searching the USS Cole for the 10 missing sailors continued. (See related story, right.)

A military flight carrying remains of five of the dead was met today by an Air Force honor guard at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. A base spokesman said the bodies would be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday.

U.S. experts are fanning out across the Yemeni port city of Aden to investigate the blast, which Pentagon officials are calling a well-planned suicide mission and the worst terrorist attack in Navy history.

The Cole has been listing in the wake of Thursday’s explosion —believed to be the same size as the blast of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City — which left a 30-by-40-foot hole in the destroyer’s port side hull. But Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said the ship was now stable, and some power and communications capability restored.

In light of the blast, which U.S. officials have called a terrorist attack, and the violence between Palestinians and Israelis, many U.S. embassies were closed in the Middle East and Africa, or closing their public operations through at least the weekend.

“We have also sent messages to embassiesworldwide to be careful, to be vigilant and, in all thesesituations, to keep in very close touch with the Americancommunities,” said State Department spokesman Richart Boucher.

Cole Crew Tired, Distraught

Within days, Bacon said, Navy officials could know when and how the Cole could be moved to a different facility for repairs (see related story).

Two other U.S. Navy ships — USS Hawes and USS Donald Cook — have arrived in Aden to assist the Cole, Bacon told reporters at a Pentagon briefing today.

“This is significant because, obviously, the crew left on the USSCole is tired and distraught,” he said. “And so the crews of the new ships can help do some of the work that’s required to keep the ship afloat andto deal with the damage to the hull.”