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Yemen, U.S. forces increase presence in Aden

NICOSIA — Yemen has increased security around the port of Aden in wake of an explosion that crippled a U.S. warship and killed 17 U.S. sailors.

The Yemeni forces were joined by U.S. soldiers in establishing roadblocks throughout the city and searching for suspects. The forces have also increased security over U.S. sailors from the USS Cole, which sustained the blast, as well as the Aden sea port and airport, Middle East Newsline reported.

The joint operation has highlighted what U.S. intelligence officials described as growing security cooperation between the United States and Yemen. U.S. warships refuel in Aden and Washington plans to install an electronic listening post nearby, The Washington Times reported Saturday.

Other analysts and retired military officials scoffed at the notion of U.S.-Yemen security cooperation and called it part of an official damage control effort necessitated by a tragedy caused in part by U.S. military resources being stretched too thin.

The Washington Times said the listening post will be installed on the island of Socotra, about 400 kilometers off the coast of Yemen. The listening post will monitor ship traffic that pass through the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union operated two electronic eavesdropping posts in Yemen.

The investigation of the blast is said to be focusing on Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden, the London-based Al Hayat daily reported on Monday.

U.S. officials said the security cooperation between the United States and Yemen has been hampered by the presence of Islamic terrorists, such as the organization of Bin Laden. The Beirut-based Hizbullah and the Palestinian Hamas also operate offices in Yemen.

Two Islamic groups — Mohammed's Army and the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army — have claimed responsibility for the attack. But intelligence sources said they are believed to be front groups for Bin Laden.

U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, met with Yemeni military leaders, including Chief of Staff Gen. Abdullah Ali Elaiwa. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has pledged to cooperate with the United States in the investigation of the bombing.

But Yemen continues to insist that the bombing on Thursday was not a terrorist attack. Yemen has said the same of a Friday bombing of the British embassy in Sanaa, in which nobody was hurt.

U.S. officials said the State Department has ordered an alert of all of its embassies in the Middle East and has relocated staffers to locations regarded as more safe. "We're still working with people," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "We're making phone calls. We're going to visit people. It's just we don't have our doors open to the public temporarily, at a moment when it's prudent not to do that."