‘Qaeda’ cleric escapes US drone attack

US-Yemeni cleric and terror suspect Anwar al-Awlaqi narrowly escaped a US drone attack three days after American commandos killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, a tribal source said yesterday.

Thursday’s strike in Yemen’s Shabwa province, a stronghold of Al-Qaeda, is the first reported American targeting of other key figures in the terror network after a stealthy commando raid killed bin Laden inside Pakistan last Monday.

A source from Awlaqi’s tribe in Shabwa province east of Sanaa told AFP the cleric was travelling with a Saudi Al-Qaeda member when they were targeted by a US drone strike.

The car was slightly damaged but the two men escaped unharmed. “Their car had minor damage, but they were able to proceed in another car,” said the source, who is linked to the local administration in the region where Awlaqi’s tribe has considerable influence.

The drone attack hit another car in which two local Qaeda members, both brothers, were travelling. It killed them and wounded a third.

It was not immediately clear if Awlaqi was targeted following information the US had said it gathered from Osama bin Laden’s million-dollar villa near the Pakistan capital Islamabad.

Awlaqi, an American citizen who remains at large in Yemen, is suspected of being a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and of instigating a string of attacks against the US.

Thursday’s targeting was also the first known attempt to get him since Yemeni forces tried to kill him in an air raid in December 2009 in Shabwa, but failed despite killing 34 others.

The US has also accused Awlaqi of having links with Major Nidal Hasan, who is suspected of shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas in November 2009.

The Yemeni defence ministry has confirmed the killing of two brothers last Thursday, but did not elaborate on the circumstances of their deaths. Security sources identified them as Abdullah and Mubarak al-Harad.

Witnesses said they saw a missile fired by an aircraft hit the two brothers, who died instantly.

The Washington Post reported in November that President Barack Obama’s administration had deployed unmanned Predator drones in Yemen to hunt for Al-Qaeda operatives.