SANA, Yemen — An airstrike Sunday killed a top al-Qaeda leader on the FBI’s most-wanted list for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole warship, Yemeni officials said. The drone attack was carried out by the CIA, U.S. officials said.
Fahd al-Quso was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle, along with another al-Qaeda operative, in the southern Shabwa province, Yemeni military officials said. They were speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations.
The drone strike that killed al-Quso was carried out after an extended surveillance operation by the CIA and the U.S. military, two U.S. officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The strike was authorized by the Yemeni government, which then made the announcement after the operation was complete, the officials said, part of the U.S. strategy to give the host government more public ownership of the operation being carried out on Yemeni soil.
The airstrike came as the U.S. and Yemen cooperate in a battle against al-Qaeda in southern Yemen.
Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the USS Cole bombing in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.
He served more than five years in a Yemeni prison for his role in the attack and was released in 2007. He briefly escaped prison in 2003 but turned himself in to serve the rest of his sentence.
A telephone text message claiming to be from al-Qaeda’s media arm confirmed al-Quso was killed in the strike.
Al-Quso was one of the most senior al-Qaeda leaders publicly linked to a 2009 Christmas airliner attack. He allegedly met with the suspected bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in Yemen before the young Nigerian left to execute his failed attack over Detroit with a bomb concealed in his underwear.
In December 2010, al-Quso was designated a global terrorist by the U.S. State Department, an indication that his role in al-Qaeda’s Yemen offshoot, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, had grown more prominent.
