Top Al Qaeda Figure Killed

By HAKIM ALMASMARI in San'a, MARGARET COKER in Abu Dhabi and SIOBHAN GORMAN and JULIAN BARNES in Washington, D.C.

Al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the most-wanted terrorists on a U.S. target list, has been killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen, marking another significant blow to the global terrorist group after the assassination of Osama bin Laden earlier this year.

WSJ reporter Margaret Coker has details of the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a key al Qaeda operative. (Photo: Site Intelligence Group and Associated Press)

An American-born Islamic preacher and U.S. citizen, Mr. Awlaki had been linked to suspects in the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting spree and the botched bombing of a Detroit-bound jet that Christmas.

On the run for months in Yemen's remote tribal regions, Mr. Awlaki was killed at approximately 9:55 a.m. local time outside a village in the northeastern province of Jawf, according to a Yemeni official familiar with the situation.

U.S. officials said Mr. Awlaki was killed by a CIA drone strike as part of a CIA-special operations forces operation. Both U.S. and Yemeni officials characterized the operation as a joint U.S.-Yemeni effort.

At least four people were killed in the operation, Yemeni government officials said. These included a second American, Samir Kahn, who was an editor and illustrator for Inspire, the online magazine of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula.

Mr. Awlaki played a leadership role in foreign operations but had a limited role in AQAP's activities in the Arabian Peninsula, according to AQAP members and Yemeni officials. The military leader of AQAP who directs local and regional operations against Saudi Arabia and Western targets in Yemen remains at large.

Mr. Alwaki was instrumental in recruiting foreign volunteers who have helped transform the group's local and regional reach into a threat for Western countries. The loss of an Al Qaeda operative fluent not just in English but also in American culture stands to hamper the group's efforts to inspire so-called homegrown terrorists to mount solo attacks in the U.S.

Less clear is how his death will affect the local operations of AQAP, which has launched multiple attacks closer to home, including an attack against the U.S. Embassy and an assassination attempt against the top Saudi counterterrorism official.

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This 2008 image taken from Fox News video shows Samir Khan in Charlotte, N.C.

The U.S.-Yemeni counterterrorism operation raises questions about the continued tenure of embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has refused to give up power despite the eight-month-old nationwide protests against his regime. President Saleh's son and nephews command the country's counterterrorism troops. Some protest leaders believe that America's and neighboring Saudi Arabia's priority to fighting Al Qaeda has curbed their international diplomatic pressure to force the president from power.

One U.S. official added that counterterrorism cooperations with the Yemeni government have been strong despite the months of bloody turmoil. The key tip that led to the strike on Mr. Awlaki came from Yemen intelligence, according to U.S. officials.

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Mr. Awlaki, who ran mosques in the United States before leaving the country in 2002, has long been among the top U.S. targets in Yemen. His U.S. roots and fluent English made him a special concern of U.S. counterterrorism officials. In recent years, he emerged as a leading charismatic recruiter for AQAP, the branch of the terror group the U.S. considers the gravest threat to the American homeland.

Mr. Awlaki has been on the run in Yemen since 2009, when U.S. officials publicly linked him to at multiple terrorist incidents in the U.S., including the Fort Hood shootings in which 13 people were killed, the Christmas 2009 plot to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger plane and a separate plan to blow up a U.S.-bound cargo plane.

The U.S. hasn't made public formal charges or any specific evidence it has against Mr. Awlaki. But U.S. officials have put him on a hit list of suspected Al Qaeda members for military and intelligence officials to track and kill. Mr. Awlaki's inclusion on the secret list have raised questions in the U.S. about the legal parameters of America's unilateral killing of terrorist suspects, particularly one who is an American citizen.

Last year, the U.S. District Court in Washington dismissed a law suit brought by Mr. Awlaki's father and the American Civil Liberties Union. They had argued for an injunction of the covert program, citing legal statutes prohibiting American agencies from killing U.S. citizens without any judicial process. The judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds, saying that Mr. Awlaki's father, who is a Yemeni citizen, didn't have standing in the U.S. court. The judge also said the propriety of his extrajudicial killing wasn't a question for the courts.

To U.S. officials, Mr. Awlaki represented a clear and immediate danger to America. "This was a terrorist who wasn't simply a propagandist, but over the years had become an operational figure who was increasingly focused on planning and carrying out attacks against the United States and our allies," said a senior U.S. defense official.

The other American said to have been killed in the attack, Mr. Khan, ran an anti-American web site from his home in Charlotte, N.C., before leaving the U.S. for Yemen several months ago.

A story bearing the byline Samir Kahn, about the role of media efforts in Jihad, appeared in the English-language Fall 2011 issue of the online Al Qaeda magazine "Inspire." The online magazine also promised a coming feature from Mr. Awlaki about "targeting the populations of countries that are at war with Muslims."

Details about Friday's attack remain murky, but a senior Yemeni official said that Americans have been "directly" involved with tracking Mr. Awlaki around the country. They learned that he had moved to Jawf earlier this month, the official said. The area is near a historic smuggling route along a mountain range stretching the length of the country and located some 140 kilometers (87 miles) from the capital, San'a.

The U.S. narrowly missed him in a drone strike in May, when a U.S. drone fired on a vehicle in the southern Yemen province of Shebwa that the cleric had been driving in earlier that day. Since then, Mr. Awlaki moved hundreds of kilometers northeast, and earlier this month U.S. officials located him in the mountain range located in Jawf province, according to the Yemeni official.

Around daybreak Friday, Mr. Awlaki, Mr. Khan and a handful of fellow supporters set off in a multi-car convoy, according to local residents and Yemeni officials.

The car carrying Mr. Awlaki and Mr. Khan was hit by a missile a few miles outside the mountainous village called Khashef, according to Yemeni officials. Another vehicle was hit by a drone missile a few miles away across the border into Mareb province, according to several local residents who saw the strike and the charred hull of bodies and a Toyota pickup truck.

A U.S. official said Mr. Awlaki was identified based on facial recognition rather than DNA testing. Though Yemeni government officials say that at least four people were killed, local residents said they saw five corpses. Local residents say there was no sign of soldiers in the vicinity of the missile strikes.

Mr. Awlaki came to prominence in 2009 due to his role as an Internet-based spiritual guide aiding the radicalization of a new generation of Islamist extremists.

Born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, he once preached tolerance between Muslims and Christians. His message changed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. He returned home to Yemen in 2004, and Yemen authorities arrested him at the behest of the U.S., but then released him in December 2007, saying they didn't have enough evidence to hold him.

Although he isn't the head of AQAP, U.S. officials say Mr. Awlaki has assumed an operational leadership role in the terror group. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of the November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, corresponded with Mr. Awlaki before his attack.

The U.S. added Mr. Awlaki to the CIA's target list after AQAP's failed attempt a month later to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger airliner.