The 10 chief suspects in the bombing of the USS Cole have escaped from custody in Aden, local officials said. Security forces mounted a major search operation in the Yemeni port where the 10 had been held since shortly after the attack in October 2000. Chief suspect Jamal al-Badawi is among the escapees who reportedly got out through a prison window early on Friday. Seventeen US sailors died and 37 were wounded when two suicide attackers in a bomb-laden dinghy rammed their destroyer in the port in an attack widely blamed on al-Qaeda. Mr al-Badawi allegedly helped buy the dinghy. The men broke out of a window around 0500 (0200 GMT) and their absence was not discovered by warders for another hour, local officials told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity. Full Story