American al-Qaida cleric killed by US strike in Yemen

An American-born cleric killed in Yemen played a “significant” role in plotting and inspiring attacks on the US, officials said as they disclosed detailed intelligence to justify the killing of a US citizen.

Anwar al-Awlaki, who had been under observation for three weeks, was killed early yesterday in a strike on his convoy carried out by a joint operation of the CIA and the US Joint Special Operations Command.

Following the strike, a US official outlined new details of al-Awlaki’s involvement in anti-US operations, including the attempted bombing on December 25 2009 of a US-bound aircraft. The official said al-Awlaki specifically directed the man accused of trying to bomb the Detroit-bound plane to detonate an explosive device over US airspace to maximise casualties.

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The official also said al-Awlaki had a direct role in supervising and directing a failed attempt to bring down two US cargo aircraft by detonating explosives concealed inside two packages posted to the US. The US also believes he had sought to use poisons, including cyanide and ricin, to attack westerners.

Al-Awlaki was killed by the same US military unit that killed Osama bin Laden. A US official said that four individuals died.

Al-Awlaki is the most prominent al-Qaida figure to be killed since bin Laden’s death in May.

The US reports of the death came after the government of Yemen reported that he had been killed about five miles from the town of Khashef, some 87 miles from the capital, Sanaa.

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The air strike was carried out more openly than the covert operation that sent Navy SEALs into bin Laden’s Pakistani compound.

Cooperation between the United States and Yemen has improved in recent weeks, allowing better intelligence-gathering on al-Awlaki’s movements, US officials said. The ability to track him better was a primary factor in the success of the strike, they said.

The death is the latest in a run of high-profile killings ordered by President Barack Obama. But Al-Awlaki is a US citizen, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, who had not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government’s authority to kill an American without trial.

US officials have said they believe al-Awlaki inspired the actions of Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan, who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

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