Posted on:
Friday, October 13, 2000
11:43 AM
Bodies of sailors arrive in Germany
By Associated Press
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — A U.S. military flight carrying bodies of U.S. sailors killed in an attack on a Navy ship in Yemen landed Friday evening in Germany.
An Air Force honor guard waited at the side of the tarmac as the flight arrived. Flags at the base in western Germany flew at half mast.
A spokeswoman for the Air Base said the flight was carrying five of the dead sailors so far recovered.
U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Terrence Dudley, from the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet, said 22 injured sailors had been evacuated to Germany. The injured, who are expected to arrive at about midnight, are to be taken to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. military facility.
Another 11 injured sailors have been taken to the east African country of Djibouti, the French Defense Ministry said.
The United States says 17 sailors died and 33 were injured in the explosion on the USS Cole while it was refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seven bodies have so far been recovered.
U.S. officials allege suicide bombers blew up a small boat next to the 9,100-ton destroyer.
