Fugitive al-Qaeda suspect Jamal al-Badawi who was accused of masterminding the bombing of USS Coledestroyer Cole in 2000 has turned himself in to Yemeni police, local media reported Tuesday.

 

So far, 18 out of the 23 suspects involved in the bombing have been arrested or killed by Yemeni 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 destroyer in October 2000 at the port of Aden in South Yemen, which killed 17 sailors and injured 28 others.

 

Badawi was arrested and imprisoned in Aden but managed to breakout 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-meter-long underground tunnel in the jail.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2007)