The destroyer Cole certainly was an inviting target.
The cause was unclear, but the blast raised fears of another terrorist strike near where the destroyer Cole was hit two years ago.
The devices were developed after the 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole as a means of warding off enemy sea craft.
Admiral Gehman led an independent inquiry into the terrorist attack on the destroyer Cole in 2000.
The greatest fear is a repetition of the attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen last year.
She was assigned to the destroyer Cole.
Each side even accused the other, with some justification, of trying to exploit the fatal attack on the destroyer Cole for gain in this campaign.
When the American destroyer Cole was hit in Yemen, she sent one of her prosecutors to investigate.
Among those he met, the newspaper reported, was one of the men who carried out the attack on the American destroyer Cole in October 2000.
Ten months later, the same group used a sturdier boat to attack the destroyer Cole, killing 17 sailors.