USS Cole bombing mastermind killed in US airstrike, says report

FBI had offered $5m reward for information leading to his capture

The al-Qaeda operative believed to have been the mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole, has reportedly been killed in a US airstrike.

Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi, blamed for organising the 2000 attack on the US navy destroyer that killed 17 Americans, was said to have been killed in a strike in Yemen.

CNN said the attack happened on Tuesday – something later confirmed by a US military spokesman who said an assessment was still being carried out.

“We are aware of reports that Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a strike in Yemen,” Capt Bill Urban, US Central Command spokesman, told The Independent in a statement.

“US forces conducted a precision strike January 1st in the Marib governate, Yemen, targeting Jamal al-Badawi, a legacy Al Qaeda operative in Yemen involved in the USS Cole bombing.

“US forces are still assessing the results of the strike following a deliberate process to confirm his death.”

The attack on the USS Cole, as it was docked in the Yemeni port of Aden, was the deadliest on a US naval vessel since 1987. In addition to the 17 sailors killed, a further 39 were injured.

Following the attacks of 9/11, the bombing of the USS Cole was viewed, retrospectively, as one of several incidents, along with the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which al-Qaeda had been flexing its muscles.

Al-Badawi, one of six people detained for the attack on the USS Cole, was captured twice in Yemen and sentenced to death. He was also indicted by a US court, but twice he escaped from custody, most recently in 2006

At that time, the FBI placed him on its most wanted list and offered a reward of $5m for information leading to his capture.

“Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi is wanted in connection with the October 12, 2000, bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen,” the FBI said.

(Getty (Getty)

“This attack resulted in the deaths of 17 American sailors. Al-Badawi was being held by Yemeni authorities in connection with the attack when he escaped from prison in April of 2003. Al-Badawi was recaptured in March of 2004, but again escaped Yemeni custody on February 3, 2006.”

CNN said US officials said that the airstrike took place in Yemen’s Ma’rib governorate. It said an administration official said that al-Badawi was struck while driving alone in a vehicle and that the US assessed there was not any collateral damage. The network did not say how the US had come to this assessment.

Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, another al-Qaeda militant linked to the bombing, has been in US custody since 2002 at Guantanamo Bay.

US military prosecutors have charged al-Nashiri with murder for allegedly planning the attack on the USS Cole.