Trump says Iran was linked to the USS Cole attack: a federal judge also ruled Iran was complicit
Trump highlights a lesser-remembered but deadly pre-9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attack in making his case against the Iranian regime. Federal courts appear to agree with him on the facts.
By Jerry Dunleavy
Published: March 11, 2026 10:52pm
President Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that the Iranian regime bears some responsibility for the terrorist suicide bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. The president has gotten pushback from some in the press, but a federal judge has repeatedly agreed with him.
In an oft-forgotten terror attack, al-Qaeda terrorists bombed the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole in October 2000 — less than a year before 9/11 — killing 17 U.S. sailors and wounding dozens more. Abd al Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al Nashiri was a top associate of Osama bin Laden and the alleged mastermind of the attack against the U.S. naval ship parked in the waters off the Yemeni coast, and this summer he will likely face a military trial at Guantánamo Bay for his role in the bombing.
Trump has repeatedly cited the attack in recent days as part of the U.S. justification for strikes against Iran — saying the Iranian regime had likely been aware of and involved in the plot — although multiple journalists contend this is not true.
But in lawsuits brought in U.S. federal court by victims and family members of the terrorist bombing in the Gulf of Aden more than two and a half decades ago, an Obama-appointed judge has repeatedly held the Iranian regime at least partly responsible for the suicide attack, due to the extensive assistance Iran had provided to al-Qaeda in the 1990s.
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/trump-says-iran-was-linked-uss-cole-bombing-federal-judge-also-ruled-iran-was
