Death penalty sought for ship blast suspect

US military prosecutors have requested the death penalty for the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole warship that killed 17 US sailors in 2000, the Pentagon said on Monday.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces eight charges, including murder and terrorism, for the attack in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000, that wounded 47 sailors.

Prosecutors have also charged al-Nashiri over a failed attack on another US warship, the USS The Sullivans, in Aden in January 2000 and an attack on the SS Limburg, a French supertanker, in the Gulf of Aden in October 2002.