(CNN)Sudan will pay a $30 million settlement to the families of 17 US Navy sailors killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in a bid to get itself removed from the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism, Sudanese officials said.
Sudan's government "explicitly denies" its involvement in the attack and says the payout announced Wednesday is intended to "settle the historical allegations of terrorism left by the former regime." The country's longtime President Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a military coup in April following a lengthy popular uprising.
USS Cole was attacked in 2000 by suicide bombers in a small boat while refueling in the port of Aden in Yemen.
The remains of a sailor killed in the USS Cole attack are carried from a US Air Force transport plane on October 13, 2000 at Ra