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By KIMBERLY DOZIER and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press
      

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama declared the killing of
a fiery American-born cleric a "major blow" to al-Qaida's most
active affiliate, and vowed a vigorous U.S. campaign to prevent the
terror network and its partners from finding a haven anywhere in
the world.

      Anwar al-Awlaki, and a second American, Samir Khan, were killed
by a joint CIA-U.S. military air strike on their convoy in Yemen
early Friday. Both men played key roles in inspiring attacks
against the U.S., and their killings are a devastating double blow
to al-Qaida's most dangerous franchise.

      Seeking to justify the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen, Obama
outlined al-Alwaki's involvement in planning and directing attempts
to murder Americans.

      "He directed the failed attempt to blow up an airplane on
Christmas Day in 2009. He directed the failed attempt to blow up
U.S. cargo planes in 2010," Obama said. "And he repeatedly called
on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill
innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda."

      After three weeks of tracking the targets, U.S. armed drones and
fighter jets shadowed al-Alwaki's convoy early Friday, then drones
launched their lethal strike. The strike killed four operatives in
all, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss
matters of intelligence.

      Al-Awlaki was targeted in the killing, but Khan, who edited a
slick Jihadi Internet magazine, apparently was not targeted
directly.

      Al-Awlaki played a "significant operational role" in plotting
and inspiring attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said
Friday. Khan, who was from North Carolina, wasn't considered an
operational leader but had published seven issues online of Inspire
Magazine, a widely read Jihadi site offering advice on how to make
bombs and the use of weapons.

      Obama praised Yemen's government and security forces for its
close cooperation with the U.S. in fighting Al-Qaida in the Arabian
Peninsula, arguably the terror network's most dangerous affiliate.
With al-Awlaki's death, Obama said AQAP remains "a dangerous but
weakened terrorist organization."

      Following the strike, a U.S. official outlined new details of
al-Awlaki's involvement in anti-U.S. operations, including the
attempted Christmas 2009 bombing of a Detroit.-bound aircraft. The
official said that al-Awlaki specifically directed the men accused
of trying to bomb the airliner to detonate an explosive device over
U.S. airspace to maximize casualties.

      The official also said al-Awlaki had a direct role in
supervising and directing a failed attempt to bring down two U.S.
cargo aircraft by detonating explosives concealed inside two
packages mailed to the U.S. The U.S. also believes Awlaki had
sought to use poisons, including cyanide and ricin, to attack
Westerners.

      The U.S. and counterterrorism officials all spoke on the
condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence matters.

      Al-Awlaki was killed by the same U.S. military unit that got
Osama bin Laden. Al-Awlaki is the most prominent al-Qaida figure to
be killed since bin Laden's death in May.

      U.S. word of al-Awlaki's death came after the government of
Yemen reported that he had been killed Friday about five miles from
the town of Khashef, some 87 miles from the capital Sanaa.

      The air strike was carried out more openly than the covert
operation that sent Navy SEALs into bin Laden's Pakistani compound,
U.S. officials said.

      Counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and Yemen
has improved in recent weeks, allowing better
intelligence-gathering on al-Awlaki's movements, U.S. officials
said. The ability to better track him was a key factor in the
success of the strike, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition
of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

      Al-Awlaki's death is the latest in a run of high-profile kills
for the Obama administration. But the killing raises questions that
the death of other al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden, did not.

      Al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico to Yemeni
parents, who had not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties
groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an
American without trial.

      Awlaki's father, Nasser al-Awlaki of Yemen, had sued President
Barack Obama and other administration officials 13 months ago to
try to stop them from targeting his son for death. The father,
represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center
for Constitutional Rights, argued that international law and the
Constitution prevented the administration from assassinating his
son unless he presented a specific imminent threat to life or
physical safety and there were no other means to stop him.

      But U.S. District Judge John Bates threw out the lawsuit in
December, saying a judge does not have authority to review the
president's military decisions and that Awlaki's father did not
have the legal right to sue on behalf of his son. But Bates also
seemed troubled by the facts of the case, which he wrote raised
vital considerations of national security and for military and
foreign affairs. For instance, the judge questioned why courts have
authority to approve surveillance of Americans overseas but not
their killing and whether the president could order an
assassination of a citizen without "any form of judicial process
whatsoever."

      U.S. officials have said they believe al-Awlaki inspired the
actions of Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged with
13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted
premeditated murder in the attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

      In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to
the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt said he was inspired
by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

      Al-Awlaki also is believed to have had a hand in mail bombs
addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, the packages intercepted in
Dubai and Europe in October 2010.

      Al-Awlaki's death "will especially impact the group's ability
to recruit, inspire and raise funds as al-Awlaki's influence and
ability to connect to a broad demographic of potential supporters
was unprecedented," said terrorist analyst Ben Venzke of the
private intelligence monitoring firm, the IntelCenter.

      But Venzke said the terror group al-Qaida in the Arabian
Peninsula will remain the most dangerous regional arm "both in its
region and for the direct threat it poses to the U.S. following
three recent failed attacks," with its leader Nasir al-Wahayshi
still at large.

      Al-Awlaki wrote an article in the latest issue of the terror
group's Internet magazine, justifying attacking civilians in the
West. It's titled "Targeting the Populations of Countries that Are
at War with the Muslims."

      Al-Awlaki served as imam at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls
Church, Va., a Washington suburb, for about a year in 2001.

      The mosque's outreach director, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, has
said that mosque members never saw al-Awlaki espousing radical
ideology while he was there and that he believes Awlaki's views
changed after he left the U.S.

      Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Lolita C. Baldor and Nedra
Pickler contributed to this report.
      

Gallery

The president declared the killing of a fiery  cleric a "major blow" to al-Qaida's most active affiliate.

Obama praises killing of al-Qaida cleric al-Awlaki

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