|
The USS ''Cole'' bombing was a terrorist attack against the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer on 12 October 2000, while it was harbored and being refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. 17 American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Casualties: U. S. Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Wounded in Wars, Conflicts, Terrorist Acts, and Other Hostile Incidents )〕 This event was the deadliest attack against a United States Naval vessel since 1987. The terrorist organization al qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. A U.S. judge has held Sudan liable for the attack, while another has released over $13 million in Sudanese frozen assets to the relatives of those killed. The American Navy has reconsidered their rules of engagement in response to this attack. ==Attack== On the morning of Thursday, 12 October 2000, USS ''Cole'', under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, docked in Aden harbor for a routine fuel stop. ''Cole'' completed mooring at 09:30; refueling started at 10:30. Around 11:18 local time (08:18 UTC), a small fiberglass boat carrying explosives and two suicide bombers approached the port side of the destroyer and exploded, creating a 40-by-60-foot gash in the ship's port side, according to the memorial plate to those who lost their lives. Former CIA intelligence officer Robert Finke said the blast appeared to be caused by explosives molded into a shaped charge against the hull of the boat. Around 400 to 700 pounds (200–300 kg) of explosive were used. Much of the blast entered a mechanical space below the ship's galley, violently pushing up the deck, thereby killing crew members who were lining up for lunch. The crew fought flooding in the engineering spaces and had the damage under control after three days. Divers inspected the hull and determined that the keel was not damaged. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 were injured in the blast. The injured were taken to the United States Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near Ramstein, Germany, before being sent to the United States. The attack was the deadliest against a U.S. naval vessel since the Iraqi attack on the USS ''Stark'' on 17 May 1987. The asymmetric warfare attack was organized and directed by the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.〔(Yemen Frees USS Cole Bomb Plotter. Al-Qaeda Mastermind Of 2000 Attack On Ship Pardoned After Turning Himself In ). Associated Press. SAN'A, Yemen, 26 October 2007.〕〔GlobalSecurity.org. (USS Cole bombing ). Page maintained by John Lumpkin – Senior Fellow, GlobalSecurity.org.〕〔GlobalSecurity.org. (Al-Qaeda Activities ).〕 In June 2001, an al-Qaeda recruitment video featuring Osama bin Laden boasted about the attack and encouraged similar attacks.〔CNN. (Video shows bin Laden urging Muslims to prepare for fighting ). 21 June 2001.〕〔CBS. (A Claim For The Cole – Bin Laden Recruitment Tape Boasts The Bombing Of The USS Cole ). 20 June 2001.〕 Al-Qaeda had previously attempted a similar but less publicized attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer while in port at Aden on 3 January 2000, as a part of the 2000 millennium attack plots. The plan was to load a boat full of explosives and explode it near ''The Sullivans''. However, the boat was so overladen that it sank, forcing the attack to be abandoned.〔(Terrorism 2000/2001 ). Federal Bureau of Investigation. United States Government Printing Office 2004–306-694.〕 Planning for the attack was discussed at the Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit shortly after the attempt, which was held from 5 to 8 January 2000. Along with other plotters, it was attended by future 11 September hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar, who then traveled to San Diego, California, where he established a close relationship with "9/11 imam" Anwar al-Awlaki, who was later linked to numerous plots and attacks, including the Fort Hood shootings and the "underwear bomber" of 2009 and was subsequently put on a targeted killing list by President Barack Obama as a terrorist threat. On 10 June 2000, Mihdhar left San Diego to visit his wife in Yemen at a house also used as a communications hub for al-Qaeda.〔Nova: The Spy Factory television show.〕〔9/11 and Terror Travel, p. 11.〕〔Substitution for the Testimony of KSM at the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.〕 After the bombing, Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul Karim al-Iryani reported that Mihdhar had been one of the key planners of the attack and had been in the country at the time of the attacks.〔Smith (2005), p. 60.〕 He would later return to the United States to participate in 9/11 on American Airlines Flight 77, which flew into the Pentagon, killing 184 victims. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Cole bombing」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|