The USA’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has kept up its run of successes against Al Qaeda with the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen of Yemeni origin, and Samir Khan, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, in a Drone (pilotless plane) and a conventional air strike from a fighter aircraft on a convoy of three cars in which they were travelling in Yemen on September 30,2011.
Coming five months after the successful elimination of Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad hide-out in Pakistan on May 2, the elimination of Awlaki and Samir Khan speaks eloquently of the improvement in the capability of the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to track down high-value targets of Al Qaeda—-whether in the Af-Pak region or in Yemen— and eliminate them through precision strikes.
the elimination of Awlaki and Samir Khan speaks eloquently of the improvement in the capability of the CIA”¦
While the Abbottabad operation was carried out by the US intelligence and special forces without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities due to suspicions of the complicity of the Pakistani Army and intelligence with Osama bin Laden, the strikes in Yemen that killed Awlaki seem to have been carried out with the knowledge of the Yemeni authorities.
This speaks well of the level of trust between the US and Yemeni intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies—the kind of trust that has been significantly absent in the relations between the agencies of the US and Pakistan.
It is not yet known whether the intelligence that led to the elimination of Awlaki and Samir Khan came from human or technical sources and what role the Saudi intelligence, which closely monitors the activities of Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), played in the operation.
Successful operations of the Saudi intelligence against Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia in the past indicated a high level of penetration of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia by the Saudi intelligence.
Last year’s successful thwarting of an attempt in October by the AQAP to smuggle explosive devices concealed in printer cartridges to the US indicated that the intelligence probably came from human sources of the Saudi intelligence in the AQAP, which was originally formed by the merger of Al Qaeda branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and which has many Saudi operatives.
Successful operations of the Saudi intelligence against Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia in the past indicated a high level of penetration of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia by the Saudi intelligence. It is likely that some of these assets are still available to the Saudi intelligence after the merger of the Saudi Al Qaeda with that of Yemen.
Reports that Ibrahim Hasan al-Asiri, a Saudi, who was the explosive expert of Al Qaeda in the AQAP, was also in one of the cars and might have also been killed have not been confirmed so far. In fact, the Yemeni authorities have denied reports of the death of al-Asiri.
“¦the survival of al-Asiri would ensure, at least for the time being, that the AQAPs operational capabilities remain intact.
The strikes were made five miles from the town of Khashef in Yemen’s northern Jawf province, 87 miles east of the capital Sanaa.
If al-Asiri, a 29-year-old Yemen-based son of a retired soldier of the Saudi Army, had also been killed, it would have been a major blow to both the ideological-cum-motivational and operational wings of the AQAP. While the deaths of Awlaki and Samir Khan, who used to bring out “Inspire”, Al Qaeda’s online English journal, would be a severe blow to the ideological-cum-motivational wing of the AQAP, the survival of al-Asiri would ensure, at least for the time being, that the AQAP’s operational capabilities remain intact.
Born in New Mexico in the US in 1971, al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen. His father Nasser al-Awlaki used to be the Agriculture Minister of Yemen. After completing his education in the US, Awlaki went back to Yemen from where he returned after some time to work as a religious cleric in the US.
Initially, he preached in a mosque of San Diego, where in 2000 he allegedly met two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
Initially, he preached in a mosque of San Diego, where in 2000 he allegedly met two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. The FBI reportedly questioned him after 9/11, but found no evidence to justify his detention. The U.S. National Commission’s report on the 9/11 strikes said that Midhar and Hazmi “respected al-Awlaki as a religious figure and developed a close relationship with him.” They were aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. He then preached at a mosque in Virginia.
In 2004 he travelled back to Yemen, where he taught at a university before he was arrested and imprisoned in 2006 on suspicion of having links with Al Qaeda. In December 2007 he was released after he repented.
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