By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
SA’NA, Yemen – Armed US drones have been deployed to target Anwar Al-Awlaki, one of the world’s most wanted Islamist terrorists following reports that he was involved in last week’s failed suicide bomb attack against Britain’s ambassador to Yemen.
The cleric, who allegedly had ties to the September 11 hijackers, later praised the Fort Hood killings and said Muslims should only serve in the US military if they intended to carry out similar attacks.
He is also believed to have played a role in the radicalization of Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the British-educated Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet last Christmas.
Mr Obama took the highly unusual step of authorizing the assassination of an American citizen after US intelligence officials convinced the White House that the radicalization of impressionable young Muslims by al-Awlaki’s sermons posed a major threat to national security.
Senior US intelligence officials say they have stepped up their efforts to target Al-Awlaki following new evidence that the American-born cleric is taking an increasingly operational role in the operation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
But experts caution that unless Yemen diversifies its approach – which led to success in neighboring Saudi Arabia – increased military action as well as overt cooperation with America may ultimately backfire.
“Up until Christmas Day 2009, Al-Qaeda … was stronger in Yemen than it had ever been before. Over the last few months, they’ve taken a series of hits … but none of these have been sort of the debilitating blow that’s going to knock the organization off its tracks for any sustained period of time,” says Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University in New Jersey.
For more information, please see:
Telegraph UK – American Drones Deployed To Target Yemeni Terrorist – 2 May 2010
One India – Obama Orders Deployment Of US Drones To Target Yemeni Terrorist – 2 May 2010
CSM – Why Yemen’s US-Aided Fight Against Al-Qaeda Could Backfire – 2 May 2010
