A senior al-Qaida leader in the Gulf region, wanted for bombing the USS Cole warship in 2000, was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Yemen Sunday.

Yemeni officials said Fahd al-Quso was hit by a missile in Rafth, in the country's southern Shabwa province, along with another al-Qaida operative identified as Fahed al-Akdam.

The Yemeni Embassy in Washington said Quso was “one of Yemen's most wanted terrorists.” The terror group Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula confirmed his death in a statement Sunday.

News reports from Aden quote unnamed U.S. officials as saying it was an American missile strike that killed Quso. The dead man had been on the FBI's “most wanted” list, and a $5 million reward had been offered for information leading to his arrest. He was charged in a U.S. court with involvement in the October 12, 2000, bombing of the USS Cole – an attack that killed 17 American sailors and injured dozens of others.

In 2010, the U.S. State Department designated Quso a global terrorist.