Yemenis to Be Tried in Cole Blast

At least three Yemenis suspected of belonging to an international terrorist network will go on trial next month for the deadly attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole, Yemen’s prime minister said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Abdul-Karim Iryani said as many as six people--all Yemenis--could be tried on charges of laying the groundwork for the attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors on the warship as it refueled in Yemen’s seaport of Aden on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Thirty-nine other American sailors were wounded in the Oct. 12 attack, carried out by two suicide bombers who detonated a small, explosives-packed boat and blew a gaping hole in the side of the guided missile destroyer.

Iryani said the suspects being brought to trial were all “culprits in preparing for the ttack on the Cole,” but he had no details on their exact roles or the charges they would face.

Yemeni officials had at first rejected any suggestion their own citizens could have been involved in an attack on an ally. Iryani said Wednesday that he was astonished any of his countrymen would have “sacrificed his life for something that was only his own conception and ideology.”

Investigators have so far identified only Yemeni suspects in the attack--including at least one of the suicide bombers. The other bomber has not yet been identified, Iryani said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he had no information about trial dates for suspects in the Cole attack, but he said the U.S. administration was pleased by the progress achieved so far in the investigation.