WASHINGTON: : The Pentagon said on Monday it is charging a Saudi Arabian with “organising and directing” the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole— and will seek the death penalty.

Brig Gen Thomas W Hartmann, legal adviser to the US military tribunal system, said charges are being sworn against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent, who has been held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006.

The charges still must be approved by a Defense Department official who oversees military tribunals set up for terrorism suspects. If they are approved, al-Nashiri he will be the first person charged in the United States in connection with the attack nearly eight years ago.

Hartmann said the allegations include conspiracy to violate laws of war, murder, treachery, terrorism, destruction of property and intentionally causing serious bodily injury.