The explosion ripped an approximately 40 by 40 foot hole in the Cole, killing 17 members of the crew and injuring another 39. The number of casualties was high because the explosion hit just outside the mess hall, the location where many of the crew were eating lunch.
The two people aboard the small craft were also killed in the explosion during what appears to have been a suicide mission.
Although the explosion caused the Cole to list four degrees, it did not sink it. Since the Cole could not be towed with its gaping hole, the U.S. Navy hired the Blue Marlin, a heavy lift ship, to literally carry the USS Cole back to the U.S. for repairs. It took 14 months and $250 million to repair the USS Cole.
The bombing of the USS Cole was a terrorist attack organized by al-Qaida. The man who organized the bombing, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was found and arrested in October 2002 in the United Arab Emirates.
However, in February 2009, the charges against al-Nashiri were dismissed without prejudice, which means charges can still be brought against him at a later time. For the time being, al-Nashiri remains in prison. (The charges were dismissed in accordance with the Obama administration's decision to suspend nearly all cases from Guantanamo Bay in order to review the claims of torture there.)
