WASHINGTON - Six sailors from the USS Cole were killed yesterday and 11 are missing after a small workboat piloted by suspected terrorists pulled alongside the Norfolk-based destroyer and exploded, ripping a 20-by-40-foot hole in the ship as it prepared to refuel in Yemen.
Witnesses aboard the Cole saw two men aboard the workboat suddenly stand up as if coming to attention moments before their craft exploded in a blinding flash. Thirty-five other U.S. sailors were injured, some of them seriously, officials said.
In Williamsport, Washington County, Bruce Wibberley, an uncle of sailor Craig Wibberley, 19, confirmed last night that his nephew was killed in the bombing.
Crew members on the Cole worked into the night searching for dead and wounded comrades and trying to stem the flooding, although officials said there was little danger of the 505-foot-long guided missile destroyer sinking.
A Yemeni TV broadcast showed some of the bloodied sailors being treated at a local hospital. At least one was a woman. There are about 30 women among the 320-sailor crew of the high-tech vessel, officials said.
No individuals or groups have claimed responsibility for the explosion, which took place in the port city of Aden. The deaths aboard the Cole were the greatest loss of life aboard a Navy ship since the USS Stark was struck by an Iraqi missiles in the Persian Gulf in May 1987, leaving 37 dead and five wounded.
"If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act," President Clinton told reporters at the White House. "We will find out who was responsible and hold them accountable.
"If their intention was to deter us from our mission of promoting peace and security in the Middle East, they will fail utterly."
But Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who pledged cooperation with the investigation, disputed that account.
"I don't think it's a terrorist act," he said in an interview with CNN, denying that his country, which borders the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, harbors any "terrorist elements."
U.S. officials, however, said Yemen is a haven for known terrorist groups including Hamas and an organization run by Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian radical who has been implicated in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Pentagon officials said French and British ships in the region had offered assistance and two U.S. Navy ships were heading to Yemen. They are expected to arrive today.
