The Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, most recognized for its involvement in the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, is allegedly affiliated with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The Yemen-based group has been implicated in several acts of terror since the late 1990s.

Aden-Abyan was formed sometime in either 1996 or 1997 as a loose guerrilla network of a few dozen [Page 7]men—a mix of veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war and Islamists from various countries. In May 1998, it issued the first of a series of political and religious statements on Yemeni and world affairs. In December 1998, Aden-Abyan kidnapped a party of 16 Western tourists in southern Yemen, 4 of whom later died during a botched rescue by Yemeni security forces. The leader of the group, Abu al-Hassan al-Mihdar, was executed for his role in the kidnappings.

Numerous connections have been ...