Rumors About Cole Blast Enthrall Yemenis

It was still early, but rumors were spreading quickly through the frantic khat market.

A lean man with teeth stained brown from chewing the narcotic leaf said it was the Israelis who attacked the U.S. guided missile destroyer Cole, which is still sitting in the deep green waters of the harbor just a few miles from the souk.

Another Yemeni blamed Thursday’s bombing on the Afghans, and yet another said that Americans themselves were to blame, for supporting Israel and keeping U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, home of Islam’s holiest cities.

“Now Yemen has its own Lockerbie,” sighed spice merchant Murad Kusair, referring to the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Scotland that killed 270 people, most of them Americans. “We are afraid for America.”

Jassan Fadle, wrapped in a traditional Yemeni checked skirt, personally apologized for the attack on the Cole, which was carried out by two men in a small boat packed with explosives.

The bombing killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39.

“First of all, I would like to say I am sorry about what happened here,” he said. “I think the system in Yemen is responsible for what happened to them. There is no security. So many things are out of control in Yemen. Yemen has lots of social problems.”

The 27-year-old said extremists in the country “who pretend they are Muslims” believe that the U.S. should be punished for supporting Israel.

“We see it on television what happens in Israel, and we get angry,” he said. “But it is not right to do an explosion and kill people.”

On Monday, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh admitted that the explosion was a terrorist attack and not the accident he had earlier claimed. Since then, this nation on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula has been in the grip of wild rumors.

People insist that two Yemenis were aboard the U.S. ship and killed, but U.S. officials deny this. Others say the blast occurred inside rather than outside the ship, though the metal around the 40-by-40-foot hole in the hull is clearly pushed inward.

Not everyone in the souk seemed unhappy about the attack.

Ahmed Saleh, a 22-year-old medical student, adamantly defended Osama bin Laden, a Saudi militant leader whose father was from Yemen. Bin Laden, who has been indicted in the U.S. in connection with the August 1998 terrorist bombings at the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, has emerged as a suspect in last week’s blast.

“He is the best of men,” Saleh said. “I don’t believe all the things the Americans say about him. He fights for Islam his own way.”

His friend, who gave his name as Hani, agreed but said blowing up ships is wrong.

“Anyone who visits your house should be safe,” he said. “You should give them all your protection.”

A bearded man in a white turban who refused to give his name said U.S. forces were using the port here as part of an effort to encircle the Arab world, and for that and their support of Israel had only themselves to blame for the attack.

On a narrow side street full of Somali beggars, Abdullah Mohammed Balkan condemned the attack.

But when he spoke of the violence in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between Israelis and Palestinians, his eyes narrowed and his craggy face bent into a scowl.

“What are the Arabs supposed to do, just look?” he asked.

Yemen has been identified as a haven for terrorism by the State Department, and thousands of Yemenis went to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan during the 1980s. These veterans helped President Saleh in his battle to unite northern and southern Yemen into a single nation in 1990 and to defeat a 1994 rebellion in the south.

Analysts say many of these so-called Afghan Arabs are still in Yemen and inflamed by a passionate hatred of the U.S. and Israel.

The mere mention of Bin Laden’s name on the streets of Aden makes people look nervously over their shoulders.

“We were all surprised because of the high technology” of the attack, said Nashar Ali Mahmoud, a 61-year-old teacher. “Maybe it wasn’t Bin Laden but some of those who support him. Because of the technology, our people could not do it.”

Back at the khat market, business was booming. Tareq Mohammed Mahmoud and a friend wrapped bundles of the plant.

“Somebody did this bomb because of Palestine,” he said. “If I knew who did, I would tell you. How much would America pay me?”