Cleric killed

Al-Awlaki's death is seen as a serious blow to the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a key offshoot of the al Qaeda terror group.

US officials were reported as saying that he had been targeted and killed in a CIA unmanned drone attack along with another US militant of Pakistani descent, Samir Khan, and other associates. Yemen Defense Ministry officials said they had been killed in an attack on their convoy early on Friday in the eastern province of al-Jawf.

US President Barack Obama described al-Awlaki's death as "another significant milestone" in the global effort to combat terrorism and vowed that the US would continue its relentless campaign to track down and destroy terror networks around the world.

Al-Awlaki, who is of Yemeni descent, had been on the run since 2007 and had been high on the US most-wanted list. He has dual US and Yemeni nationality.

While living in the US, he had preached at mosques attended by some of the 9/11 bombers and was also implicated in the 2009 US army base killings in Ford Hood, Texas. As chief of AQAP's external operations, he also masterminded the 2009 attempt to blow up a US Detroit-bound passenger plane.

Stepping up of unmanned attacks

His reported death comes at a volatile time in Yemen amid US concerns that the political power vacuum there could be exploited by the al Qaeda network. The US has recently stepped up its drone attacks in the country in an attempt to prevent al Qaeda from using the turmoil to its advantage.

The killing drew criticism of the White House's "kill-capture" policy from the American Civil Liberties Union, with the objection that a US citizen had been "executed" without trial.

"It's a program under which US citizens far removed from the battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process and on the basis of standards and evidence that are secret," said deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, Jameel Jaffer.

Author: Rob Mudge (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Knigge