By
The Associated Press
ADEN, Yemen - The men who bombed the USS Cole got help from Yemeni officials who fought with them in Afghanistan in the 1980s, sources close to the case said yesterday as the crippled Cole began a five-week trip home.
The destroyer was getting a piggyback ride back to the United States aboard the Norwegian ship Blue Marlin, which was carrying the 8,600-ton destroyer on its deck. The ships sailed from waters off Yemen on Sunday and will head around Africa's Cape of Good Hope en route to the United States, the company in charge of the transport said.
That route avoids the Suez Canal - a shorter path, but one that had raised security concerns among U.S. officials.
The Cole should reach its home port of Norfolk, Va., by about Dec. 10, said Frederik Steenbuch, manager of Oslo, Norway-based Offshore Heavy Transport.
The blast that crippled the Cole and killed 17 American sailors came as the ship was refueling in Aden harbor on Oct. 12. Suicide bombers apparently sidled a small, explosives-lined boat up to the Cole and detonated it, ripping a 40-foot-by-40-foot hole in the steel hull.
There has been no credible claim of responsibility, but American officials have said Osama bin Laden - America's No. 1 terror suspect, who has pledged to drive the U.S. military out of the Middle East - is a focus of the investigation. The Saudi millionaire, who lives in Afghanistan, is also accused of masterminding the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Yemeni investigators have been questioning members of Islamic Jihad, a group formed by Arab veterans of the war to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Bin Laden, who has roots in Yemen, recruited many fighters for the war in Afghanistan.
Sources close to the case said the investigation has revealed that officials in Lahej, an Islamic Jihad stronghold, provided the suspected bombers with government cars for use within Aden and between Aden and Lahej, 22 miles to the north. The suspected bombers knew the officials from their time together fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
The Yemeni officials are believed to be affiliated with the Islamic Jihad, according to the sources. They said the officials had met several times with the suspected bombers since March, when preparations for the bombing are believed to have started.
The sources also offered other new details about the investigation. They said that one month before the bombing, the two bombers took their boat for a test ride in the harbor where the Cole was to dock. A fisherman who helped the bombers take the boat to the water is believed to have been an accomplice, the sources said.
In the past two days, Yemeni authorities have arrested four men who live in Aden, the sources said. The men were tracked down for questioning through phone records showing that the suspected bombers had been in contact with them.
The United States is pressing Yemeni authorities leading the probe to allow U.S. agents a greater role in the investigation.
A Yemeni official, also speaking on condition he not be named, said Monday that authorities have turned down a U.S. request to relay their questions to the detainees. He said expanding the American role in the investigation is being discussed, but that his country's stand remains that the Americans cannot interrogate any Yemeni citizens.
