A key al Qaeda operative linked to the planning and execution of the deadly 2000 attack on the American warship USS Cole was killed during a U.S. airstrike in Yemen, military officials confirmed Sunday.

Jamal al-Badawi, a “legacy” al Qaeda member was killed while traveling through Marib governate by an American strike, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said in a statement. He did not confirm whether al-Badawi was killed by a drone strike or by U.S. fighter aircraft, or whether other members of the terror group were also killed in the attack, roughly 70 miles from the Yemeni capital of Sana’a.

The slain al Qaeda terrorist was likely a senior member of the group’s Yemeni cell, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP — which remains the organization’s best-funded and most dangerous terror cell in the world.

The Trump administration lauded the attack on social media, saying the strike had “delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded” in the USS Cole attack and others carried out. “Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism.” Mr. Trump said in a Tweet on Sunday.

At the time of the attack, al-Badawi was being sought by U.S. authorities for his role in the deadly attack on the USS Cole in October 2000. The attack, which took place in Yemen’s Aden Harbor and left 17 sailors dead and over 30 wounded, was the worst terror attack on an American vessel since 1987 and the first major strike by al Qaeda against a U.S. military target.

In 2003, Al-Badawi was charged in absentia by an American court on “50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of U.S. nationals and murder of U.S. military personnel,” Capt. Urban said in a statement.

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