USS Cole bombing mastermind nabbed in Yemen
straitstimes.asia1.com.sg
SANAA - Yemen's security forces have detained a top Al-Qaeda man, a suspected mastermind of the deadly suicide bombings of the USS Cole and a French oil tanker off the country's coast.
Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal had evaded arrest despite heading the Arab state's wanted list for nearly two years.
The official Yemeni news agency, Saba, said the man, also known as Abu Asem al-Macci, surrendered to police after they surrounded a house in the capital, Sanaa, where the Islamic militant had been hiding.
In Washington, a US counter-terrorism official said Ahdal had been among the top 20 to 25 Al-Qaeda leaders still at large and called his capture a significant development.
'He was a key Al-Qaeda facilitator in Yemen,' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'He was believed to be involved in planning terrorist operations.'
The official said Ahdal also had an important financial role in moving Al-Qaeda money around.
Yemeni security officials believe Ahdal was one of the masterminds of the 2000 bombing of the Cole, which killed 17 US sailors, and the 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker, Limburg.
In each of those attacks, an explosives-laden boat was piloted up to the larger ship and detonated.
The Limburg attack killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.
Ahdal had significant combat experience in Afghanistan in the 1980s and in Bosnia in 1990s, and also had a lot of contacts in Al-Qaeda, the official added. -- Reuters, AP |
