Ten suspected members of Al Qaeda, including at least two suspects in the 2000 bombing of the American destroyer Cole, escaped from a high-security Yemeni prison today, according to Yemeni officials. One escapee was said to be Jamal al-Badawi, who is believed to have procured the small boat that was loaded with explosives and driven into the Cole as it was refueling off the southern Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors died in the suicide bombing, which blew a 40-foot hole in the ship at its waterline. Details of today’s prison break were few and officials said it was still being investigated. “A few prisoners have escaped and there is no real evidence of any attack on the place they’ve been held,” Abubakr al-Qirbi, Yemen’s foreign minister, said in a telephone interview from Sana, the capital. It was not clear how many of the 10 missing men were connected with the Cole case. “I think some of them are,” Dr. Qirbi said, “but we don’t have now all the details.” Full Story
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