There has been, of late, increasing concern over the safety of navigation in the Malacca Strait. This follows al-Qaeda attacks on the USS Cole in Aden in October 2000 and the French-owned supertanker Limburg off the coast of Aden in October 2002. Then there was the bombing of a superferry by the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in waters off Manila in February 2004, the worst act of maritime terrorism in recent years with more than 100 passengers killed.