Aden (AFP)--12Oct2000/803 am EDT/1203 GMT
An inflatable craft ran into a US navy guided missile destroyer
triggering an explosion which left at least four sailors dead,
30 wounded and one missing in the Yemeni port of Aden on
Thursday, the navy said."The assistant attache from the embassy
witnessed a Zodiac-type boat impacting the side of the ship
before the explosion," Lieutenant Commander Daren Pelkie told
AFP."A US army major saw this (vessel) run into the side of the
ship at the time of the explosion," he said."So far we are
hearing four killed, 30 wounded, one missing," said Pelkie from
the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. The commander could
not say if the Zodiac deliberately hit the ship in a terror
attack. The USS Cole was heading to the Gulf to join the US-led
maritime operations in support of UN sanctions against Iraq.


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