Al Qaida strike?
The week's news at a glance.
Mina al-Dabh, Yemen
An explosion tore through the side of a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen this week, not far from where al Qaida attacked the USS Cole two years ago. One crewman died. French and Yemeni officials said that while they could not rule out terrorism, an oil leak was the more likely cause of the explosion. But Euronav SA, the French owner of the Limburg tanker, said it was unquestionably a terrorist attack. “It was not an accident,” Euronav director Jacques Moizan told the London Times. “The crew saw a high-speed vessel approaching on the starboard side.” The Cole explosion in 2000, which killed 17 crew members, was a suicide bombing in which al Qaida members sped an explosives-laden boat directly into the hull. Yemen is the bin Laden family’s ancestral home, and al Qaida is known to be active there.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Exploring Georgia's southern highlands
The Week Recommends Visit Javakheti, Georgia's 'lake district', and meet the last-remaining 'spirit wrestlers' in the region
-
Delivery drivers face continuing heat danger with Trump's OSHA pick
The Explainer David Keeling is the former head of UPS and also worked at Amazon
-
Is that the buzzing sound of climate change worsening sleep apnea?
Under the radar Catching diseases, not those ever-essential Zzs