Jamal al-Badawi, the Yemeni al-Qaida operative accused of organizing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike, President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday.
"Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole," Trump said in a tweet.
"We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi," the president added. "Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!"
Seventeen American sailors were killed and more than 40 were injured in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack, in which al-Qa1da suicide bombers pulled up to the refueling destroyer in an explosives-laden boat and blasted a hole in its hull.
Navy Capt. William Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Friday that the U.S. airstrike targeting Badawi was conducted Jan. 1 and that military leaders were assessing its results, the Associated Press reported.
