Anwar al-Awlaki was a US-born al Qaeda cleric
Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed, officials have confirmed.
CNN reports that al-Awlaki was killed Friday in an airstrike in Yemen. The strike was a “successful joint intelligence-sharing operation” between Yemen and the United States, a Yemeni government official said.
The death of al-Awlaki has dealt another major blow to al Qaeda, following the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this summer. Al-Awlaki was one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world.
Anwar al-Awlaki was a US-born al Qaeda cleric and was the public face of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Alwaki was fluent in English and technology and used these skills to recruit terrorists.
U.S. officials believe al-Awlaki helped recruit Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, a.k.a. the underwear bomber, who attempted to blow up a transatlantic flight in Detroit on December 25, 2009.
Read more about the life and death of Anwar al-Awlaki here.
