SANAA, July 7: A Yemeni court on Wednesday charged six militants with carrying out the Oct 2000 bombing of the US destroyer Cole in Aden port and of membership in the Al Qaeda network.

The six included the main suspect in the case, Abdel Rahim al Nashiri, who is in US custody and being tried in absentia. The five others were in court. The attack against the US navy destroyer left 17 American sailors dead and was claimed by Osama bin Laden.

The six were accused of carrying out "the attack against the USS Cole, belonging to the Al Qaeda network and undermining Yemen's interests", according to the charge sheet read out during an hour-long hearing.

They were also accused of "forming an armed group to perpetrate criminal acts". Three officials from the US Justice Department attended part of Wednesday's session at the state security court.

The court, which opened the trial on June 6 and adjourned for a month, set the next session for July 14. Mr Nashiri was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in Oct 2002 and handed over to Washington.

Mr Nashiri, born in Saudi Arabia of Yemeni descent, was described at the time as Al Qaeda's chief for naval operations and its operations chief in the Gulf. He is also suspected of involvement in attacks against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in Aug 1998 which killed 224 people, and in the Oct 2002 attack on the French super tanker Limburg off southern Yemen, in which one Bulgarian crew member was killed and 12 others were wounded. -AFP