An article posted on an Islamist Web site in April urged Muslim fighters to begin attacking warships and merchant traffic in the strategic choke points around the Arabian Peninsula, according to a project that monitors online extremist activities.
The Jihad Press article, the equivalent of an op-ed column, names a few areas that al-Qaida considers “of supreme strategic importance in the campaign to expel the enemy:” the Red Sea, Yemen’s Gulf of Aden and the Bab Al-Mandeb strait, “the gate of tears,” which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
The Jihad Press column cites the October 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole, which killed 17 sailors; and the 2002 attack on the French oil tanker Limburg — both in Yemeni waters — as proof that Islamist fighters can have an effect at sea.
It probably wouldn't be as easy to hit a US Navy target this time, they're much more aware of the threats involved and better prepared to face them, as evidenced in recent incidents in the area where USN-flagged ships fired on small boats.
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