Al-Qaeda suspect in USS Cole bombing killed, Trump says

Jamal al-Badawi. Photo / FBI, AP

"Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!" https://t.co/hCyqtL4PBg

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) January 6, 2019

Jamal al-Badawi, the Yemeni al-Qaeda operative accused of organising the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, has been killed in a US airstrike, President Donald Trump said.

"Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole," Trump said in a tweet.

"We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi," the US President added. "Our work against al-Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!"

US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, confirmed Badawi's death in a statement.

"US CENTCOM has confirmed that Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a precision strike in Marib governate, January 1," it said in a tweet. "Jamal al-Badawi was an al-Qaeda operative involved in the USS Cole bombing. US forces confirmed the results of the strike following a deliberate assessment process."

Seventeen American sailors were killed and more than 40 were injured in the October 12, 2000 attack, in which al-Qaeda suicide bombers pulled up to the refuelling destroyer in an explosives-laden boat and blasted a hole in its hull.

Navy Captain William Urban, a spokesman for US Central Command, said at the weekend that military leaders were assessing the results of the airstrike, AP reported.

Badawi was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court in 2004, then had his sentence reduced to 15 years in prison. He made two successful jailbreaks in 2003 and 2006; after he surrendered in 2007, authorities in Yemen secretly made a deal to allow him to remain free in exchange for aiding in the search and capture of other al-Qaeda operatives.

News of the deal put a strain on relations between Yemen and the US, where Badawi had been indicted by a federal grand jury on murder and terrorism charges and the State Department had offered a US$5 million bounty for his capture.