By
The Associated Press
ADEN, Yemen (AP) - Yemeni investigators are headed to the United States and Germany to talk to American sailors who were aboard the USS Cole when it was attacked in Aden harbor, the Yemeni military newspaper reported Thursday.
The newspaper, 26 September, said the investigators would leave soon, but did not say when. Its report was based on unidentified Yemeni sources.
A trial date for at least six Yemeni suspects has not been set and the process of questioning suspects and witnesses is continuing, according to 26 September, the newspaper of the Yemeni armed forces. The review of materials collected by U.S. investigators and interviews with U.S. sailors also may be part of trial preparations.
A U.S. Embassy official in San'a, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was unaware of plans for Yemeni investigators to go to the United States and Germany but that any such arrangements would be handled between the two investigative teams. U.S. investigators have referred all questions to the embassy.
Prime Minister Abdul-Karim al-Iryani estimated last month that the trial of the suspects would begin in the last half of January.
However, in the past week, the likelihood of a trial anytime soon appears to have faded. Yemeni sources have said Yemen wanted a trial to begin quickly but that the Americans wanted to await further investigation. Yemen's ambassador to Washington, Abdulwahab Alhajjri, has denied any such disagreement existed.
26 September said the Yemeni investigators traveling to the United States and Germany - where the United States has military bases - also would be reviewing results of forensic tests done in the United States and evidence from the blast site and locations allegedly used by suspects while preparing for the attack.
According to the newspaper, the Yemeni investigators want results of DNA tests on remains collected at the site where two bombers blew up their explosives-lined boat next to the destroyer on Oct. 12, killing themselves and 17 American sailors. They also would receive medical reports on the dead and the 39 injured sailors, 26 September said.
Last month, the United States and Yemen agreed to closer cooperation between U.S. and Yemeni investigators. The accord was reached after Yemen initially balked at allowing the Americans much access to Yemeni suspects in the Cole bombing, saying it was a matter of sovereignty.
Also Thursday, Yemeni sources close to the Cole investigation said U.S. investigators would speak with witnesses in Hodeida, a Red Sea port city 200 miles northwest of Aden. The sources also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The key suspect in custody, Jamal al-Badawi, is said to have told authorities that the small boat allegedly used in the attack had been sent from the United Arab Emirates to Yemen through Hodeida.
Al-Badawi, according to Yemeni sources, also confessed that Islamic militants also had been watching Hodeida port - which receives fewer foreign ships than the port in Aden - to see which site offered the best opportunity for attack.
Thursday's edition of 26 September also said Yemen has received some answers to its request for further information from the U.S. investigators regarding the Cole's voyage before it arrived in Aden. The newspaper provided no details.
