USS Cole bombing suspect dies in raid

Yemeni Al Qaeda leader Fahd al-Quso who was wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole was killed in an air raid in eastern Yemen yesterday, a tribal chief said. Al Qaeda, which has strongholds in southern and eastern Yemen, confirmed the slaying of Quso in an SMS text message sent to reporters which could not be immediately verified. “Fahd al-Quso, who was wanted by the US for the attack against the USS Cole, was killed tonight (Sunday) in an American raid on the Rafadh region” in the Shabwa province, said tribal chief Abdel Magid bin Farid al-Awlaki. The October 2000 attack on the US Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, in Yemen’s port of Aden killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more. Quso was killed when two missiles slammed near his home in Rafadh, east of Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa province, the tribal chief said, adding that two of the suspect’s bodyguards were also killed in the raid. In the text message, Al Qaeda said: “The martyr Sheikh Fahd al-Quso was martyred, killed in an American raid this afternoon in Rafadh.” The Yemeni embassy in Washington also confirmed the death of Quso in a statement, saying he was “one of the most wanted terrorists in Yemen”. Quso’s name figured on an FBI list of most wanted terrorists along with a reward of up to $5mn for information leading to his arrest. Al Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the attack on the USS Cole which was carried out when militants riding an explosives-laden skiff blew a 10m by 10m hole in the USS Cole. The USS Cole was in the port of Aden for a routine fuel stop when it was attacked. Quso belonged to the powerful Al-Awlak tribe of US-Yemeni cleric and terror suspect Anwar al-Awlaki who was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. US intelligence officials believed Awlaki was linked to a US army major charged with shooting dead 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas, and to a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a US airliner on December 25, 2009. He was also believed to be the leader of external operations of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula—the local Al Qaeda branch in Yemen. In April, the Washington Post said that the CIA was seeking permission to launch more drone strikes in Yemen, adding that there had been at least eight US raids in Yemen in the past four months. The US has never formally acknowledged the use of drones against Al Qaeda in Yemen, and the Yemeni government continues to deny that such air strikes take place.