Yemen`s al-Qaida leader killed in US airstrike
Baku, May 7 (AZERTAC). The Yemen-based al-Qaida said its prominent leader Fahd al-Quso, a globally wanted terrorist, was killed on Sunday in a U.S. air raid in the mountains of southeastern Shabwa province of the impoverished country.
"Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) confirmed the killing of its leader Sheikh Fahd al-Quso al-Awlaki in a U.S. air strike on Sunday afternoon in Rafd area in Shabwa," the group said in a statement obtained by Xinhua.
A Yemeni security official in Ataq, capital city of Shabwa, told Xinhua by phone that al-Quso`s nephew Fahed al-Akdam, another high-ranking member of the AQAP, was also killed in the air strike that targeted their vehicle.
Al-Quso was jailed in Yemen in 2002 for the involvement in attacking U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole in the country`s southern Aden port, in which 17 U.S. sailors were killed.
Abdul-Elah Haidar Shaiee, a Yemeni journalist who is in jail for links to the AQAP, told Xinhua that al-Quso said in an interview that he was assigned along with other members by slain al-Qaida leader Osma bin Laden to prepare for attacking the USS Cole.
According to Shaiee, al-Quso admitted that he collected information and prepared TNT explosives for a suicide boat that hit the U.S. warship.
The Yemeni security authorities released al-Quso from prison in 2007 and after two years, he was added to the list of the FBI`s most wanted terrorists.
In 2010, the U.S. State Department labelled al-Quso as a specially designated global terrorist. He was also added to the United Nations 1267 Sanctions Committee`s Consolidated List of Individuals associated with al-Qaida and the Taliban, an act requiring "all UN member states to implement an assets freeze, a travel ban and an arms embargo against this individual," according to the U.S. State Department.
Other news in this section
