Imam Linked to Fort Hood Shooter Possibly Killed in Yemen
An air strike by Yemeni forces has killed at least 30 Al Qaeda terrorists, possibly including the radical Islamic cleric linked to Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan.
(CNN) — Yemeni jets launched an aerial assault Thursday against suspected senior al Qaeda operatives meeting in a remote location, and about 30 militants were killed, according to the Yemen news agency SABA.
Without mentioning a number, the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said in a news release, “Preliminary reports suggest that the strike targeted scores of Yemeni and foreign al Qaeda operatives.”
One of the militants may have been the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the embassy said.
Al-Awlaki recently told the Arab-language Web site of Al-Jazeera that he had been in touch with the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5.
In that interview, al-Awlaki said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan communicated with him via e-mail starting about a year before he went on the shooting rampage. Hasan wanted al-Awlaki’s advice about killing U.S. troops, the cleric said.
“Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the regional al Qaeda leader, and his deputy, Saeed al-Shihri, alongside Anwar al-Awlaki, were presumed to be at the site (of Thursday’s attack),” according to a news release from the Yemen Embassy in Washington.
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