Jamal al-Badawi, the Yemeni al-Qaeda mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that left 17 American servicemen dead, has been killed in a US airstrike in Yemen, AFP reported Sunday (January 6th).
The US military said that al-Qaeda operative Jamal al-Badawi was believed to have been killed in a precision strike January 1st in Marib governate.
"Jamal al-Badawi was a legacy al-Qaeda operative in Yemen involved in the USS Cole bombing. US forces confirmed the results of the strike following a deliberate assessment process," Navy Capt. William Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump also confirmed the strike, pledging to continue the fight against terror groups.
"Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole," Trump tweeted. "We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi."
"We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism," Trump tweeted.
On October 12th, 2000, a rubber boat loaded with explosives blew up as it rounded the bow of the guided-missile destroyer, which had just pulled into Aden for a refueling stop.
Seventeen American sailors were killed as well as the two perpetrators of the attack that was claimed by al-Qaeda.
The chief suspect in the attack, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is being held by the US.
Al-Badawi was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 and charged with 50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of US nationals and murder of US military personnel.
He was said to have supplied boats and explosives for the attack on the destroyer.
Al-Badawi was also charged with attempting with co-conspirators to attack a US Navy vessel in January 2000, and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
According to the agency, he was captured by Yemeni authorities but escaped from prison in April 2003. He was recaptured in March 2004, but again escaped in February 2006.
The rule of this world is supposed to be based on justice. This is guaranteed in Islam, and there is no terrorism. It’s the West that made those young people hate it. Justice means fairness and not to manipulate the causes of Muslims. When Muslims unite to claim their rights and ask that nobody manipulate their causes, this is a legitimate thing. Those young people can be contained by speaking nicely to them, rather than declaring war on them and exercising violence against them. It’s not just to kill somebody before a fair trial can be held. We hope that the West and its tools will look for fair globalisation, which they will only find in Islam. They should coexist with it [i.e. Islam] rather than impose secularism on it or support extremist groups and plant them and then accuse Islam of being behind them. We don’t deny that there are extremist young people. However, the cause is their society and the international community because of its wrong policies and the imposition of international sanctions on them and their countries. Those young people can be sent to moderate religious schools, but the problem lies in the West which doesn’t accept the moderate schools. This is unjust and illogical. The West must know that reviving religious discourse wouldn’t harm them; the harm will be done when they keep silent about injustice and when they fail to support the oppressed. If the oppressed is a person, they would receive money to sell their case. This means we should
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