Terrorism is confirmed in Limburg blast, and . . . Arrests made [Archives:2002/43/Front Page]

The investigation into the Oct. 6 blast of the French supertanker Limburg produced an admission this week from Yemen’s interior minister that terrorists are behind the attack.
Yemen security officials have also arrested an unknown number of suspects they believe may be involved in the terror attack.
Police made the arrests after raiding an undisclosed location in al-Mukalla where they found bomb-making material believed used in the attack.
The blast that ripped through the French supertanker, and spilled at least tens of thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden, was a “terrorist act”, the official Saba news agency reported on Wednesday.
“It was a premeditated terrorist act carried out with a boatladen with explosives,” Saba quoted minister Rashad al-Alimi as saying.
Explosives confirmed
“Tests of items collected on the ship have shown traces of explosives,” the minister said.
It was the first time a Yemeni government official has acknowledged the blast was a deliberate act. Yemeni authorities kept saying during the following days after the explosion that it was caused by a technical failure in the vessel.
This week, security apparatus discovered a second dead body the sources think it is of a fisherman. There was no evidence indicating any relationship with the incident.
Yemeni investigators think it’s possible the attack was carried out by using a boat with a remote control device, or a sea mine.
Sources close to Yemeni investigation committee have quoted an American investigator as saying that the way the operation was implemented was different from other operations carried out by al-Qaeda linked groups.
The sources said that the American officer told Yemeni and French investigators
that the method used in this operation would help better understand terrorist methods, regardless of the identity of its implementors.
The October 6 explosion killed one crewman.
Yemeni, French and U.S. investigators “will continue their
cooperation to…arrest all the elements involved in this terrorist act and those behind them,” the minister said.
It’s believed the ship will be moved to Dubai, as early as Oct. 20, where it might be repaired.
French diplomats, the Limburg’s crew and its owner, Euronav SA, had said from the start the blast probably happened after a small boat rammed into the tanker’s hull.

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