Sources say six key accomplices held in Cole attack

ADEN, Yemen - In one portrait emerging from Yemen, the plotters who attacked a U.S. warship in the port of Aden came from across the region, inspired by hatred, hardened by war and determined enough to try again and again until they were able to strike a mighty target.

Yemeni sources close to the investigation of the Oct. 12 bombing say authorities have detained six Yemeni men they believe were key accomplices. Scores of people have been held so far, but the sources said these six are the first described as central players - including a main plotter.

The sources, who spoke late last week on condition they not be named, said no charges would be filed until the investigation was complete. Yemen's Interior Minister Mohammed Hussein Arab told 26 September, a state-run weekly newspaper, that charges would be referred to the judiciary ''in the next few weeks.''

The article, which ran in last week's edition, quoted the minister as saying 'several key suspects' had been arrested. It wasn't clear if those were the six referred to by the AP's sources.

The sources said the main accomplice was in charge of the operation in Yemen and coordinated between different cells involved in the attack. He reportedly told Yemeni investigators he received his orders from a man in the United Arab Emirates described as an Arab veteran of the U.S.-backed guerrilla war to drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan.

Quoting Prime Minister Abdul-Karim al-Iryani, The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the two men who carried out the suicide bombing have been identified as Yemeni veterans of the Afghan war. But according to the AP's sources, the man believed to be a main plotter of the Aden bombing said one of the suicide bombers may have been from Saudi Arabia.

The sources also said two small American government planes left Aden for the United States Wednesday and Thursday carrying documents related to the case. Details about the documents were not known.

After months of careful planning, two suicide bombers brought a small boat laden with explosives alongside the USS Cole and detonated it. The explosion killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39.

The main accomplice reportedly told investigators he never met either of the two men and communicated with them through a third party. The plotters reportedly worked in cells of two or three people, and many suspects did not know each other.

Ed Badolato, a former U.S. government anti-terrorism official, said the plotters were organized in cell structures that point to at least three militant Islamic groups: Egypt's al-Gamaa al-Islamiya; Afghan war veterans linked to America's No. 1 terror suspect, Osama bin Laden; or homegrown Yemeni groups.

Both the Egyptian group, which aims to overthrow its country's secular government, and bin Laden's followers have historically had strong ties to Yemen, where they have found support among Yemenis able to provide them fake travel and identification documents - either out of sympathy for their cause or simply for cash.

''They are famous for doing this, not just for bin Laden, but for other groups,'' Badolato said.

Badolato said any government employees who may have helped the Cole bombing plotters were not sponsored by the government. Yemeni authorities have detained lower- and midlevel security officials in connection with the attack.

While Yemeni officials may soon bring charges against the suspects now in custody, the U.S. investigation will continue and it may take time before it leads to members of any broader conspiracy, said terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, an American.

''I think it will be plenty of time before we start pointing fingers,'' Bodansky said.

The Yemeni sources said the main accomplice was from Aden and three others were from Lahej, a Muslim fundamentalist stronghold 20 miles north of Aden. The two others were described as Yemeni with no further details.

The sources have said government officials in Lahej provided the suspected bombers with government cars for use within Aden and between Aden and Lahej.

Some of the government officials detained over the Cole attack are allegedly affiliated with Islamic Jihad, a group linked to bin Laden, a Saudi dissident living in exile in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is accused of masterminding the 1998 bombings on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Jihad is believed to have a worldwide network, including a few hundred members in Yemen. It is made up of veterans of the 10-year fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that ended with the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. These so-called Afghan Arabs then spread out to fight a new enemy seen as a threat to Islam - the United States.

The Cole was bombed after at least three other plots against American targets in Yemen failed in the past year, the sources have said.

In the first week of November 1999, Yemeni authorities discovered and defused explosives planted along a road near a hotel that was home to U.S. military personnel who were helping Yemen remove land mines planted during the civil war.

Later, the plotters planned to attack the hotel itself. No details were available on why that plan failed.

An attack similar to the one carried out on the Cole was aborted in January because the boat was overloaded with explosives and unseaworthy, the sources said.

After that attack failed, the Cole was targeted and the players changed for security reasons, the sources said last week.

Relations between Yemen and the United States have reportedly been strained over the limited access U.S. investigators have had to Yemeni suspects and sources. But both sides insist publicly that they are cooperating well.

Yemeni sources said Yemeni investigators have asked Saudi Arabia and Egypt for help in identifying some of the people involved in the case. Yemeni investigators are also sharing information with Kuwaiti investigators to determine whether a case there is related. Kuwaiti prosecutors are preparing formal charges against six Kuwaitis suspected of plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. and other Western forces in Kuwait.

Both the Cole attack and the Kuwaiti plot followed Israeli-Palestinian clashes. These enraged Arabs across the region, who see the West as Israel's protector.

On Friday, an explosion in a possibly booby-trapped vehicle in the Saudi capital killed a British man and injured his wife. Following the Cole explosion, U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Gulf were placed on the highest alert level.