Awlaki, Al Qaeda Terror Leader, Killed in Yemen
Anwar al-Awlaki, a top al Qaeda leader in the Arabian peninsula nation of Yemen, has been killed, several news reports said, quoting officials.
The U.S.-born cleric considered the head of the terror group’s Yemeni wing, was killed in an air raid in Yemen, U.S. officials told The New York Times.
He was blamed for several attacks in Yemen, but also was cited as an inspiration for other attacks, like the 2009 mass killings carried out by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood, Tex. and the attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square.
Awlaki’s group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was also famously implicated in the attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a U.S.-bound jet on Christmas Day in 2009.
A Yemeni security official said Awlaki, who is of Yemeni descent, was hit in an air raid and said those killed with him were suspected al Qaeda members.
It was not immediately clear if Yemeni forces had carried out the raid or if Awlaki had been killed by a U.S. drone strike. A U.S. drone aircraft targeted but missed Alwaki in May, the paper said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
