Predator - another germ bites the dust

[Dedworth]

Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born radical Islamic preacher who rose to the highest level of al Qaeda's franchise in Yemen, has been killed.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico, has been linked to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) attempted bombing of a U.S. passenger jet over Detroit on Christmas day, 2009, and was thought to be a leader of the group.

A U.S. government official confirms to CBS News senior security correspondent David Martin that al-Awlaki was killed. Yemen's Defense Ministry was first to tell CBS News of the strike, but given previous reports which turned out to be erroneous, the relatively rapid U.S. confirmation is crucial, and bolsters witness accounts that it was a U.S. drone strike that killed the al Qaeda figure.

The Associated Press reported that an unidentified source said the U.S. believes al-Awlaki was killed in a strike by U.S. jets and drones on his convoy.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20113732.shtml

[grahamw48]

That's the only way to deal with them.

Knock them off one by one, and send them to their 'paradise'.

[les_taxi]

We are knocking a few off lately-good news

[Dedworth]

A Daily Mail reader comments

Well done America! Now send the drones over to the UK to get the rest of 'em.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1ZSwCPolM

[Dedworth]

Vermin captured

A senior leader of the militant Haqqani network, Haji Mali Khan, has been captured in Afghanistan, the Nato-led international force Isaf has said.

He was detained during an operation by Afghan and coalition forces in Paktia province on Tuesday, Isaf said.

He was heavily armed but did not resist, it added.

Haji Mali Khan is the senior commander in Afghanistan for the Haqqani network, blamed for some recent Afghan attacks and accused of links to Pakistan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15136007

[Dedworth]

More scum gone

U.S. intelligence indicates that the top al-Qaida bomb-maker in Yemen also died in the drone strike that killed radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, two U.S. officials said Friday.

Ibrahim al-Asiri is the bomb-maker linked to the bomb hidden in the underwear of a Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

The FBI pulled al-Asiri's fingerprint off that bomb. Authorities also believe he built the bombs that al-Qaida slipped into printers and shipped to the U.S. last year in a nearly catastrophic attack.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because al-Asiri's death has not officially been confirmed.

Al-Asiri's death would make the attack perhaps the most successful single drone strike ever. Along with al-Awlaki, the attack also killed Samir Khan, the editor of the al-Qaida propaganda magazine Inspire.

Both Khan and al-Awlaki are U.S. citizens. Al-Awlaki was the target of the attack.

Christopher Boucek, a scholar who studies Yemen and al-Qaida, said al-Asiri was so important to the organisation that his death would 'overshadow the news of al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1ZZJs4roN