Foreign and Domestic Wars Against Terror

Terrorist Attack on the USS Cole - October 12, 2000

 

Launched in February of 1995, the United States naval vessel USS Cole was commissioned in Port Everglades, Florida in June of 1996. While en route to the Persian Gulf to assist in enforcing an oil embargo against Iraq, the ship had stopped at Aden Harbor, Yemen to refuel. Suicide bombers manning a small boat laden with explosives approached the ship and blew a hole 40 by 60 feet in the side of the vessel. This attack represented the first major international terrorist attack on the U.S., and with 54 casualties in total, 17 dead and 37 injured, was one of the deadliest against a U.S. naval vessel. The FBI reported to Yemen the next day to conduct one of the largest investigations for a crime occurring outside the United States. Everyone apprehended and convicted in Yemen of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole had escaped or was freed from prison by May of 2008. This attack was attributed to al Qaeda and foreshadowed the attack on the mainland United States just under a year later.