A U.S. missle strike Friday killed an American-born Al Qaeda chief blamed for the “underwear bombing” plot and cited as an inspiration for the botched Times Square terror plot. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
@WiL
Firebrand cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, 40, was knocked off in Yemen just five months after Al Qaeda kingpin Osama Bin laden was taken out by the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
The airstrike also killed a second U.S.-born militant: Samir Khan, an Al Qaeda propaganda chief who produced an English-language web magazine for the terror group, Yemeni officials said.
The attack, coordinated across three weeks, came as al-Awlaki drove in a convoy near the town of Khashef, about 90 miles east of the capital Sanaa, Yemeni authorities said.
A drone and fighter jets were involved in the strike, The Associated Press reported. Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) described al-Awlaki as “more dangerous than Bin Laden.”
The 20-something Kahn, born in North Carolina, produced the online magazine “Inspire” – a publication that mingled bomb-making instructions with anti-U.S. rants.
