Al Qaeda in Yemen #2 Killed, Says Yemen

According to Yemen:

Sana’a, Yemen (CNN) — Yemeni forces have killed Said al-Shihri, second in command of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni Defense Ministry said Monday.
A Yemeni government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials are waiting for DNA confirmation.
If confirmed, the death “would be a deeply significant blow against AQAP,” CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said.

The killing of al-Shihri and other AQAP leaders “is leading to the gradual dismantlement of the group,” CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen said.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan in April described AQAP as “very, very dangerous” and “the most active operational franchise” of al Qaeda.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress in May that al Qaeda and its affiliates, “especially al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, currently represent the top counterterrorism threat to the nation.”

The group was behind the so-called underwear bomb attempt on a U.S.-bound international flight on Christmas Day 2009 and an effort to smuggle bombs in printer cartridges onto U.S.-bound cargo planes in 2010.

Al-Shihri, who was once held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, was killed Monday in an operation in Hadramawt Valley, state-run news agency SABA reported.

Anwar al-Awlaki Assassinated, Officials Say

After an unsuccessful attempt to sue the U.S. government over their assassination order targeting him, officials now say that Al-Awlaki is dead:

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) — American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who preached terror as the public face of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed Friday in Yemen, the nation’s Defense Ministry said.

A Yemeni government official told CNN that an airstrike hit al-Awlaki’s motorcade but gave no details about the operation or who conducted it.

The United States regarded al-Awlaki as a terrorist who posed a major threat to American homeland security. Western intelligence officials believe al-Awlaki was a senior leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the most active al Qaeda affiliates that has been linked to the attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit in December 2009 and a cargo plane plot last year.

Al-Awlaki was killed about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the Yemeni town of Khashef, east of the capital, Sanaa, said Mohammed Basha, a Yemen Embassy spokesman in Washington. He said the operation was launched at 9:55 a.m.

A senior U.S. administration official confirmed al-Awlaki’s death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to CNN because he was not authorized to release the information and did not provide any other information.

Al-Awlaki Wants to Sue Government to Stop Assassination Policy: U.S. Court Refuses to Hear Case

In the midst of the U.S. government grooming al-Awlaki as the next bin Laden, and preparing to assassinate him, al-Awlaki tries a pre-emptive court case to state that assassination of U.S. citizens is illegal.  U.S. court throws out the case, citing “state secrets” would be exposed:

The Obama administration on Saturday invoked the state secrets privilege which would kill a lawsuit on behalf of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an alleged terrorist said to be targeted for death or capture under a U.S. government program.Believed to be hiding in Yemen, al-Awlaki has become the most notorious English-speaking advocate of terrorism directed at the United States.

U.S.’s War on Terror Widens

According to the NYTimes, in the “Shadow War,” the “Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents:”

This article is by Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti and Robert F. Worth.  

WASHINGTON — At first, the news from Yemen on May 25 sounded like a modest victory in the campaign against terrorists: an airstrike had hit a group suspected of being operatives for Al Qaeda in the remote desert of Marib Province, birthplace of the legendary queen of Sheba.But the strike, it turned out, had also killed the province’s deputy governor, a respected local leader who Yemeni officials said had been trying to talk Qaeda members into giving up their fight. Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accepted responsibility for the death and paid blood money to the offended tribes.

Government Officials Report: Obama Administration Approves Assassination of Anwar Al-Awlaki

According to unamed sources, the Obama administration has approved a “targeted killing,” A.K.A. assassination, of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American suspected of having close ties to al-Qaeda and helping them plot terrorist activities:

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

The possibility that Mr. Awlaki might be added to the target list was reported by The Los Angeles Times in January, and Reuters reported on Tuesday that he was approved for capture or killing.

“The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,” said an American official, who like other current and former officials interviewed for this article spoke of the classified counterterrorism measures on the condition of anonymity. “He’s gotten involved in plots.”

The official added: “The United States works, exactly as the American people expect, to overcome threats to their security, and this individual — through his own actions — has become one. Awlaki knows what he’s done, and he knows he won’t be met with handshakes and flowers. None of this should surprise anyone.”