Charges in Cole Attack Said to Be Imminent

Yemeni investigators are ready to charge at least two people in the terrorist attack on the U.S. warship Cole, a source said Sunday, six weeks after an explosion tore through the vessel as it refueled in Aden’s harbor.

Charges are expected to be filed as early as this week against the two suspects, the source said. They could be sentenced to death if convicted.

But any charges are unlikely to mean the end of the probe: U.S. investigators suspect an international conspiracy was behind the bombing.

Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed and 39 were injured Oct. 12 when two suicide bombers steered a small boat laden with explosives alongside the Cole and detonated it while the guided missile destroyer was refueling. U.S. and Yemeni officials have said that the attack appeared to be a carefully planned, well-financed operation and that the bomb materials were expertly prepared.

The Yemeni source close to the investigation would not identify the two men about to be charged, whom he described as main suspects. But last week, other sources said authorities had detained six Yemeni men they believe were key accomplices--including one who was allegedly in charge of the operation in Yemen.

American officials have said they believe the operation was carried out by a network of small cells of two or three people, probably from one or more anti-American Islamist organizations, including Yemen’s Islamic Jihad, Egypt’s Gamaa al Islamiya and followers of Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire, lives in Afghanistan. U.S. officials believe he ordered the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people.

The Yemeni source said the charges to be filed include carrying out the attack, threatening state security, forming an armed gang and possessing explosives.

Conviction on all four charges would carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, the source said, adding that the suspects could be executed if convicted of threatening state security or carrying out the bombing.