Yemeni Al Qaeda leader Fahd al Quso, who was 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 told AFP.

"Fahd al Quso, who was wanted by the United States for the attack against the USS Cole, was killed tonight [Sunday] in an American raid on the Rafadh region" in the Shabwa province, said tribal chief Abdel Magid bin Farid al Awlaqi.

The October 2000 attack on the US Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, in Yemen's port of Aden killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more.