U.S. finds evidence linking Cole attack to Bin Laden plot in Kuwait

NICOSIA — U.S. investigators have found evidence of links between the Oct. 12 suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Aden and a campaign to target U.S. and Western installations in the Gulf.

Both plots were allegedly masterminded by Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

One link being explored is between the explosives used in the Yemeni bombing and that seized in Kuwait, Middle East Newsline reported.

"There is some kind of link between those arrested in Yemen and the ring arrested in Kuwait, especially that some of the information which U.S. investigators obtained in Yemen helped uncover members of the ring in Kuwait," the Al Watan daily said.

At least 11 people have been arrested in Kuwait, some of them linked to Bin Laden. A similar number has been arrested in the aftermath of the Aden bombing.

Kuwaiti sources said the leader of the ring has escaped the emirate. He was identified as a Moroccan traveling on a forged Saudi passport who escaped with the help of a police captain. The captain was a member of the squad.

The sources said the Moroccan escaped to Iran.

U.S. officials said the investigation into the USS Cole disclosed at least three previous plots against U.S. targets in Yemen. The most prominent of them was a plan to attack on the USS Sullivan in January. A previous attempt was to bomb U.S. military personnel in Yemen during a land mine removal mission. Yet another plot was to attack an Aden hotel where U.S. servicemen were residing.

On Saturday, a Pakistani newspaper said U.S. forces are expected to launch an attack on Bin Laden's suspected hideout in Afghanistan. "The presence of U.S. naval ships, 40 nautical miles off Pakistan's sea shores, indicates that the U.S. attack on the Saudi national, Osama Bin Laden's hideout was imminent," the Frontier Post said.