Anwar Al-Awlaki Dead: U.S.-Born Al Qaeda Cleric Killed In Yemen: U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and another American al-Qaida propagandist were killed in drone attack on Friday.
The killings of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and another American al-Qaida propagandist in a U.S. airstrike Friday wipe out the decisive factor that made the terrorist group's Yemen branch the most dangerous threat to the United States: its reach into the West.
Issuing English-language sermons on jihad on the Internet from his hideouts in Yemen's mountains, al-Awlaki drew Muslim recruits like the young Nigerian who tried to bring down a U.S. jet on Christmas and the Pakistani-American behind the botched car bombing in New York City's Times Square.
Friday's drone attack was believed to be the first instance in which a U.S. citizen was tracked and killed based on secret intelligence and the president's say-so. Al-Awlaki was placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list by the Obama administration in April 2010 – the first American to be so targeted.
The other American killed in the strike, Samir Khan, published a slick English-language Web magazine, "Inspire," that spouted al-Qaida's anti-Western ideology and even offered how-to articles on terrorism – including one titled, "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom."
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