US air strike kills top al-Qaida leader in Yemen

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/07/us-airstrike-kills-al-qaida-leader-yemen

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Yemeni officials say a US air strike has killed a top al-Qaida leader on the FBI's most-wanted list for his role in the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole.

Fahd al-Quso was hit by a missile on Sunday as he stepped out of his vehicle, along with another al-Qaida operative, in the southern Shabwa province, Yemeni military officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations.

The drone strike that killed Quso was carried out by the CIA after an extended joint surveillance operation with the US military, two American officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The strike was authorised by the Yemeni government, which made the announcement after the operation was complete, the officials said, as part of the US strategy to give the host government more public ownership of the operation carried out on Yemeni soil.

The air strike came as the US and Yemen co-operate against al-Qaida in southern Yemen.

Quso, 37, was on the FBI's most-wanted list, with a $5m (£3.1m) reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the US for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbour of Aden, Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors and injured 39.

Quso served more than five years in a Yemeni prison for his role in the attack and was released in 2007. He briefly escaped in 2003 but later turned himself in to serve the rest of his sentence.

A text message claiming to be from al-Qaida's media arm confirmed Quso was killed in the strike.

Quso was also one of the most senior al-Qaida leaders publicly linked to the 2009 Christmas airliner attack. He allegedly met the suspected Nigerian bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in Yemen before he left to make his failed attack over Detroit with a bomb concealed in his underwear.

In December 2010, Quso was designated a global terrorist by the US state department, an indication that his role in al-Qaida's Yemen offshoot, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, had grown more prominent.

The Yemeni official Abu Bakr bin Farid and the Yemeni embassy in Washington confirmed Quso was killed in Rafd, a remote mountain valley in Shabwa. It is the area where many al-Qaida leaders are believed to have taken cover, including the US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a US air strike in Yemen last year.

Yemeni government officials reported that Quso and Awlaki were killed in an air strike in 2009 in Rafd, but they both turned out to be alive. Quso was known for his ability to move in disguise. He was from the same tribe as Awlaki, and local tribesmen said he was a close aide. He studied ultra-conservative Salafi Islam as a teenager in northern Yemen, then returned home to learn welding.

Yemen's government has been waging an offensive on al-Qaida militants, who have taken advantage of the country's political turmoil over the last year to expand their hold in the south.

The Yemeni president has promised improved co-operation with the US to combat the militants. On Saturday, he said the fight against al-Qaida was in its early stages.

Quso's association with al-Qaida dated back more than a decade, when he met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Bin Laden allegedly told him to "eliminate the infidels from the Arabian Peninsula". From there he rose through the ranks. He was assigned in Aden to videotape the suicide bombing of the USS Cole, but he fell asleep.

Despite the lapse, the local leader, Nasser al-Wahishi, declared him the regional leader in Aden. He was believed to have played a prominent role in al-Qaida's attack and capture last year of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province. Government troops are trying to drive al-Qaida out of Zinjibar.