Just after midday on October 12, 2000, the destroyer Cole was heading into the Yemeni port of Aden for a routine refuelling stop when a small Zodiac launch piloted by two men pulled around the ship's bow, supposedly to help the destroyer moor.

"The small boat that the explosion occurred on was actually assisting with the mooring lines," a Navy spokeswoman said at the time.

The ensuing detonation of up to 200 kilograms (about 440 pounds) of explosives (400 to 440 lbs) ripped a 20 by 40 foot (six by 12 metre) hole just above the waterline on the ship's port side, killing, besides the bombers, 17 US sailors and wounding 38 others.

Flooding was contained, but the 170-metre (500 feet) 8,300-tonne ship was left listing four degrees.

Questions were immediately asked as to what a US Navy ship was doing stopping in a country with a reputation for harbouring anti-American militants.

Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden reportedly has his origins in the country and maintains strong ties there, while the country continues to suffer periodical Islamist militant violence.

But despite Yemen's reputation as a hotbed for anti-Americanism, the Cole's visit was not unusual.

US Navy ships had made a dozen refueling stops in Aden in the 18 months preceding the attack, as part of efforts to improve relations with this country at the end of the Arabian Peninsula.

Commissioned in 1996, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Cole is one of the most sophisticated warships in the US fleet, designed for air defence and submarine warfare.

It is equipped with the advanced Aegis air defence system which can track over 100 targets simultaneously and with the Tomahawk missile for long-distance strikes.

At the time of the attack, the Cole was heading for Bahrain in the Gulf to join US-led maritime operations aimed at enforcing UN sanctions in place against Iraq at the time.

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