A fugitive indicted in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole was killed Sunday by an airstrike in Yemen, the Yemeni embassy in Washington confirmed.
Fahd al-Quso, 37, considered a leading figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed while driving in a car in the Rafth district in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa, dpa reported.
The FBI had offered a 5-million-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of al-Quso for his role in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors off Aden, Yemen.
He had been at large since escaping in 2003 from a Yemeni prison, according to CNN.
The killing is seen by some observers as a sign of renewed anti-terrorism cooperation between the US and Yemen under new Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who took power February.