U.S. Navy SEALs track and kill Al Qaeda figure head Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen

Score another one for the hometeam…

The American-born radical cleric al-Qaeda Anwar al-Awlaki, a major jihadist figure who U.S. officials say inspired several terror plots against the U.S., was killed overnight in Yemen, U.S. and Yemeni officials told ABC News.

A senior U.S. official told ABC News the U.S. had been tracking al-Awlaki for some time and had just been waiting for the perfect moment to strike. A Yemeni official said al-Awlaki was killed along with an unknown number of al Qaeda confederates, possibly in an airstrike.

“They were waiting for the right opportunity to get him away from any civilians,” a senior administration official told ABC News.

Born in New Mexico and educated in Colorado, al-Awlaki rose to prominence among extremists as a member of the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and was a vocal preacher of jihad. His online teachings have been cited as part of the motivation behind several attacks on the U.S. homeland — from the Fort Hood Massacre to the attempted Christmas Day bombing and the Times Square bomb plot.

In 2010, al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a White House-approved list for targeted killing. He nearly met his fate shortly after U.S. Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in early May when a drone strike hit the convey he was traveling but barely missed him.

At this rate Al Qaeda isn’t gonna have too many more “leaders”.

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