ADEN — Fahd al-Quso, an al Qaeda leader wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, was killed in an air raid in eastern Yemen on Sunday, a tribal chief said.
“Fahd al-Quso …was killed in an American raid on the Rafadh region” in the Shabwa province, said Abdel Magid bin Farid al-Awlaqi.
The October 2000 attack on the US Navy destroyer in Yemen’s port of Aden killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more.
Quso was killed when two missiles slammed near his home in Rafadh, east of Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa province, the tribal chief said, adding that two of the suspect’s body guards were also killed in the raid.
ISRAEL
Netanyahu calls for an election a year early
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday indicated clearly he wants a new election in September, a year ahead of schedule.
In an address to his Likud party, Mr. Netanyahu stopped short of declaring an exact date. He had been widely expected to set the vote for Sept. 4.
“I won’t lend my hand to an election campaign that will last a year and a half and damage the state,” he said. “A short campaign of four months is better. That can return stability to the political system quickly.”
MALI
Terrorist attacks U.N. heritage site
BAMAKO — A new member of an Islamist militant group in north Mali attacked and burned a saint’s tomb classified as a U.N. World Heritage Site, the spokesman for the group said Sunday.
The attack by a member of the Ansar Dine group threatens to raise tensions that have been building between residents of Timbuktu and the Islamists who occupied the city in April.
“A new member of the Ansar Dine group came to Timbuktu and went to the tomb of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar on Friday to tell the faithful praying there that the saints should not be adored,” said Sanda Ould Boumama, a spokesman for Ansar Dine.
Residents at the scene had earlier described the offender as a member of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Diplomats in Bamako have said Ansar Dine has links with al Qaeda.
NIGERIA
Troops kill suspected members of Boko Haram
KANO — Soldiers in the northern Nigerian city of Kano killed four suspected members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect in a raid on their hideout Sunday, an army spokesman said.
Troops from military special Joint Task Force had stormed the hideout in the Hotoro Kwari suburb of the city notorious for Boko Haram attacks, a day after gunmen fatally shot a resident in the area.
Residents said gunfire broke out in the neighborhood as attackers suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists engaged soldiers who had surrounded the area.
LIBYA
More than 300,000 register to vote in June
TRIPOLI — The chief of Libya’s election commission said Sunday that 330,000 people have so far registered so far to vote in June for the nation’s first constituent assembly.
Nuri al-Abbar said during a news conference in Tripoli that the number is a “positive indicator” that an increasing number of citizens will register to vote.
The election for the assembly is the first such poll in Libya after four decades of dictatorship under Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed in a revolt last year.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
Please read our comment policy before commenting.