According to the New York Times citing a US court's ruling, a confession by a suspect charged with orchestrating the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship in the Yemeni port city of Aden is not valid to be used as evidence - on account that it was obtained under or as a result of torture.

"Exclusion of such evidence is not without societal costs. However, permitting the admission of evidence obtained by or derived from torture by the same government that seeks to prosecute and execute the Accused may have even greater societal costs," the ruling stated.  

The New York Times added that due to the judge's verdict, prosecutors can now no longer use key evidence against the defendant Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri.

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The attack took place in the port of Aden on October 12, 2000, which targeted US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole with a motorboat carrying explosives driven by two suicide bombers.

The attack left 17 people killed and 39 others injured. Afterward, terrorist group al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack.

This comes in the same month after the deputy foreign minister in the Sanaa government, Hussein Al-Ezzi, warned that any approach of US forces from Yemen's territorial waters "may mean the beginning of the longest and most costly battle in human history."

Two days earlier on August 6, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet confirmed that the US sailors and Marines entered the Red Sea after transiting through the Suez Canal in a pre-announced deployment.

They arrived on board the USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall warships, providing "greater flexibility and maritime capability" to the Fifth Fleet.