01 October 2011: Telegraph
by Damien McElroy, Adrian Blomfield and Nasser Arrabyee in Sanaa
The deaths of Anwar al-Awlaki, Samir Khan and three senior associates were
hailed by Barack Obama as a "major blow" to al-Qaeda's most active
affiliate since the killing of Osama bin Laden and several other figures in
the group's core.
"This is another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat
al-Qaeda," he said.
Awlaki "repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around
the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous
agenda", he claimed.
The US president said America had worked with Yemen for a long time tracking
Awlaki, but declined to comment on his role in the killing of the
American-born militant.
Five bodies were recovered from the site and Western officials believe
al-Qaeda's master bombmaker in the Arabian Peninsula may also have been
killed.
Awlaki, 40, was the first American citizen targeted by his own government in
the absence of criminal charges.
As a charismatic spokesman for the terrorists, who spoke fluent English, he
inspired attacks against the West by inspiring "lone wolf"
operators.
He was killed by a Hellfire missile fired from an unmanned drone while
travelling with fellow terrorists near Khasaf, a desert town in Jawf
province, 87 miles east of the capital Sana'a.
Samir Khan, an American citizen of Pakistani origin who edited al-Qaeda's
online magazine Inspire, was described as "irreplaceable"
in the short term.
Reports last night said the bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri was also killed
in the vehicle. If confirmed, it would mean the foreign operations of
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had been wiped out.
American officials said the strike was the product of a "joint
intelligence operation" with the Yemeni government, which exerts only
partial control over the tribal hinterland outside Sana'a.
There were suggestions that Awlaki had moved to a new region and informants
provided the crucial intelligence.
Officials in Washington said there had been a round-the-clock surveillance
operation on Awlaki since a drone strike missed its target recently.
After his vehicle "drove through" a strike in September, a team
drawn up from the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command had followed
him.
The same officials that planned and carried out the attack on Osama bin Laden
in Abbottabad, Pakistan, were involved in tracking and closing in on the
AQAP leadership. One tribal chief in the area said US aircraft had been
patrolling Marib for the past few days.
One witness said Awlaki and his associates had been eating dates on a break in
the journey just before the attack.
"US planes have been overhead for days now," a resident said. "Then
this morning at about 9:30 what appeared to be a US aircraft fired on the
two cars Awlaki and his fellow operatives are believed to have been
travelling in."
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, of Yemen, returned to Sana'a after a lengthy
stay in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment.
American politicians united to celebrate the death of the "American
jihadist" who posed a unique challenge to the place of his birth.
"For the past several years, Awlaki has been more dangerous even than
Osama bin Laden had been," said Peter King, Republican House of
Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman. "The killing of
Awlaki is a tremendous tribute to President Obama and the men and women of
our intelligence community."
Mr Obama authorised the US military to target Awlaki last year, a
controversial and legally fraught move in light of his US citizenship.
Awlaki inspired several attacks, including the 2009 Christmas underwear
bomber, an attack in Fort Hood military base by a US army major and the
stabbing of Stephen Timms, the MP for East Ham.
Members of his former mosque in Virginia said Awlaki appeared to have embraced
al Qaeda while he lived in Britain between 2003 and 2006 before moving to
Yemen.
Ron Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, said the execution of an
American citizen on the battlefield set a bad precedent.
One official said Awlaki was involved in the printer bomb packages found at
East Midlands airport last year.
The Yemeni outfit had developed bombs that contained no metal and were so hard
to detect that police missed the material on first inspection.
To distract police, Awlaki put a copy of Great Expectations in the
packages. His finger prints were found on the book.
Nigel Inkster, a former deputy head of MI6, said Awlaki "was the
ideologue of al-Qaeda".
"He was very influential because he able to groom and animate so many,"
he said. "While everyone else in al-Qaeda was dumbstruck by the Arab
Spring, he was the one person able to embrace the tsunami that hit the
region."
Awlaki's family is well-known in Yemen and his father is a former agriculture
minister. Lawyers for Nasser al-Awlaki last year petitioned an American
judge for an injunction against the kill order but the case was dismissed.
Awlaki is a former imam of mosques frequented by September 11 hijackers in
Denver, San Diego and Virginia.
Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Centre in Virginia where he preached condemned Awlaki's
death.
"We have rejected the use of extrajudicial assassination of any human
being and especially an American citizen which includes al-Awlaqi," it
said.
