Senior Leader In al-Qaeda Killed in Airstrike

On Sunday, an airstrike killed one of al-Qaeda’s leaders who was on the most wanted list for the FBI. He was involved with the bombing of the U.S. warship USS Cole in 2000, said Yemeni officials. The drone attack was done by the CIA, said U.S. officials.

Fahd al-Quso was killed by a missile when he exited his vehicle with another operative of al-Qaeda in the province of Shabwa in southern Yemen. The strike from the drone killed Quso following an extended amount of surveillance on the part of the U.S. Army and CIA.

The Yemeni government authorized the strike on Quso. The government then announced the operation was complete, as part of the strategy by the United States to allow the host government more of the public ownership of the actual operation that is being carried out on their own soil.

The al-Qaeda leader was 37 and on the most wanted list of the FBI. He had a reward of $5 million for any information that would have led to his capture. In the U.S., he was indicted for his part in the bombing in Aden, Yemen of the USS Cole. That bombing took the lives of 17 Americans, while injuring 39.

He served over five years in prison in Yemen for his part in the attack and was subsequently released back in 2007. In 2003, in escaped prison but shortly thereafter he turned himself in, to finish out his sentence.

Al-Quso was killed in the mountainous remote area of Rafd in the valley of Shaba.