Sana’a, (Xinhua) Fugitive Al Qaeda suspect Jamal al-Badawi, accused of masterminding the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in 2000, has surrendered to Yemeni police, media reports said.
So far, 18 out of the 23 suspects involved in the bombing have been arrested or killed by security forces, four are still on the run and one has been killed in a terrorist attack in which he participated.
The 23 suspects have been convicted of bombing the USS Cole in Oct 2000 at the port of Aden in South Yemen, which killed 17 sailors and injured 28.
Badawi was arrested and imprisoned in Aden but managed to break out of prison in 2003 with nine other inmates. He was sentenced to death in 2004 after being arrested again, but the sentence was later commuted to 15 years in jail.
In 2006, the 23 suspects, together with suspects of a series of other terrorist attacks, broke out of prison for the second time by digging a 70-metre-long underground tunnel in the jail.