Fahd al-Quso

Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso (12 November 1974 – 6 May 2012) was a Yemeni purported Islamist terrorist who was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. He was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen on 6 May 2012.

Militant activity During the 1990s, al-Quso trained in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. In January 2000 al-Quso planned to meet co-conspirators of the USS Cole bombing in Singapore but he failed to get the proper travel visa and went to Bangkok, Thailand, to meet instead. In Bangkok he met with Tawfiq bin Attash (a.k.a. Kallad Bin Attash), and in Malaysia with 11 September hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khaled al-Mihdhar. Tawfiq bin Attash was known as Osama bin Laden's "run boy". Although he had a peg leg, he acted as an intermediary for bin Laden. However, according to the "run boy" Attash, that amount was much less, between $10,000 and $12,000.

Following the botched attack, Osama bin Laden summoned al-Nashiri to a meeting in Afghanistan to discuss the failed operation, prompting al-Nashiri to order suicide bombers Hassan al-Khamri and Ibrahim al Thawar (a.k.a. Nibras) to attack the next "US warship" in the port before he left to meet bin Laden. Al-Quso was indicted by the Southern District Court of New York on 15 May 2003, for his role in the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, that resulted in the deaths of 17 people and wounded 40 others.

Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso has been indicted by a federal grand jury and subsequently charged with 50 counts of terrorism offenses, including: "the murder of U.S. nationals and military personnel; murdering and conspiracy to kill United States nationals; conspiracy to murder United States Military personnel; murder and attempted murder of United States military personnel aboard the USS Cole; conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against nationals of the United States; use and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against nationals of the United States aboard the USS Cole; conspiracy to destroy buildings and property of the United States; damaging and destroying the USS Cole; conspiracy to attack National Defense Utilities; using and carrying an explosive as well as a dangerous device during the attack on the USS Cole; conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization."

The Yemeni government arrested al-Quso within the first weeks of the attack on the USS Cole, but refused to allow the FBI to interrogate him. Then in April 2003 al-Quso along with 10 other suspects in the USS Cole bombing mysteriously escaped prison and was later recaptured in 2004.

A Yemeni judge finally sentenced al-Quso to ten years in prison in 2004 for his participation in the USS Cole attack. However he was secretly released by government officials in 2007. Al-Quso is reported to have appeared in a video released by AQAP "threatening to strike the U.S. homeland embassies and warships."

A picture of al-Quso surfaced with a Yemeni journalist Arafat Mudabish, who interviewed him for a story. Mudabish reports that "he lives in an isolated mountain area where there is no Yemeni government presence." He was also linked with the 2009 Christmas bombing over Detroit, as suspected bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab visited him to discuss the plot and the workings of the bomb. Al-Quso was from the same tribe as radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who had an operational role in the attack. On 7 December 2010 the United States Department of State designated al-Quso as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 which "blocks all al-Quso's property interests subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in transactions for the benefit of al-Quso." "He was also placed on the United Nations (UN) 1267 list of persons associated with al Qa'ida and the Taliban requiring all UN member states to implement an assets freeze, a travel ban, and an arms embargo against this individual."

Death Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso was killed by a CIA drone's missile in Yemen on 6 May 2012, as he exited a vehicle alongside another operative.