America Gets Vengeance for USS Cole Bombing: Official

The mastermind behind the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole is apparently dead. A US administration official tells CNN that an American airstrike in Yemen on Tuesday killed al-Qaeda commander Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi, CNN reports. Officially, US Central Command says Al-Badawi was targeted in "precision strike" but "US forces are still assessing the results." The unnamed official says Al-Badawi was hit while driving by himself and no one else was killed. The attack on the USS Cole—triggered by a boat filled with 400 to 700 pounds of explosives, per Newsweek—killed 17 US sailors and wounded another 39 on October 12, 2000. (One Army chief says there's a threat far worse than Islamic terror.)