Yemeni authorities on Tuesday said they have identified and tried to arrest the suspected mastermind behind a bombing attack last year on a French oil tanker. Security forces failed to capture Abdul Hakeem Bazeeb in an ambush last month, a government official said on condition of anonymity. He did not provide details of the failed arrest. Authorities believe Bazeeb and three accomplices in the Oct. 6 attack are still in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden. The official said the interrogations of five prisoners revealed that Bazeeb – who authorities believe is linked to bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror group – organized the Limburg attack, which caused 90,000 barrels of oil to spill into the Gulf of Aden and killed one crew member. The interrogations also revealed that Bazeeb allegedly received money from an unidentified Yemeni living in Saudi Arabia to carry out the attack, the official said. A similar attack on the destroyer USS Cole two years ago killed 17 U.S. sailors. Two prisoners confessed that they provided assistance to Bazeeb, including putting explosives in the boat that was detonated alongside the Limburg, the official said. Full Story
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