ISLAMIC terrorists blamed for blowing up a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen last weekend claimed yesterday that their intended target was an American warship.

As French and American investigators said that they had found traces of TNT on the shattered hull of the Limburg, a known militant group with links to al-Qaeda boasted that it had carried out the suicide attack. The Islamic Army of Aden claimed, however, that it had been aiming for a US Navy frigate off the port of Mina al-Dabah.

The claim came after a visit to Yemen by Scotland Yard officers to investigate reports that terrorists supporting Osama bin Laden were plotting to attack a British cruise liner and Royal Navy warships.

The Yemeni-based terrorists said that when they could not reach the American ship, they sailed a dinghy packed with explosives into the tanker. The tactic was the same as that used in the suicide attack on the USS Cole in Aden Harbour in October 2000, in which 17 sailors were killed.

A spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper yesterday: “We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels.” The group claimed to have carried out the attack to avenge the execution of one of its leaders, Abu Hassan, for the 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western tourists.

Yemeni authorities want to know why Abu Hamza, a London-based militant cleric, claimed that he had evidence that the Islamic Army was behind the attack five days ago. Ministers in the capital, Sanaa, will ask Britain again to take action against him.

The Yemeni Government still says that the explosion on the Limburg was an accident and US Navy officials said that there was no American warship near the Limburg. But the French officials said last night that they had no doubt that a suicide squad was to blame.

Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Defence Minister, said that French investigators had found traces of TNT and fragments of another boat.

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