Report: US orders killing of US Muslim cleric in Yemen

Apr 7, 2010, 16:40 GMT

Washington - The United States has ordered the killing of a Muslim cleric in Yemen who has been connected to a failed Christmas airline bombing in Detroit and killings at Fort Hood, Texas, according to The Washington Post on Wednesday.

The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, is the first US citizen to be put on a list of suspected terrorists whom the CIA is authorized to kill, the report said.

Al-Awlaki had already been on a target list kept by the military and he eluded at least one strike by Yemeni forces who had assistance from the US to target a gathering of al-Qaeda suspects.

Putting him on the CIA kill list required special approval from the White House, officials told the Washington Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.

An official told the Post that al-Awlaki has moved from the category of being militant preacher - he once worked as an imam in Virginia, outside the US capital - to becoming an operational figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who is working 'actively to kill Americans.'

Al-Awlaki has corresponded by email with people linked to both the Fort Hood massacre and Detroit attempted plane bombing.

Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan is charged with shooting dead 13 people at the US military base in Fort Hood, Texas. Investigators have said he exchanged emails with al-Awlaki, who moved to Yemen in 2002.

Al-Awlaki has praised Hasan as a 'hero' for the attack, saying it was justified under Islam because it was carried against a military waging wars in two Muslim countries.

'He is a man of conscience who could not bear the contradiction of being a Muslim and fighting against his own people,' al-Awlaki wrote.

In the Detroit case, al-Awlaki had corresponded with Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, who is charged with smuggling explosives in his underpants onto a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

Abdulmutallab tried to ignite the powder as the plane was nearing landing in Detroit.

Al-Awlaki is alleged to have been part of an effort to radicalize Abdulmutallab, media reports have said.