Anwar al-Aulaqi Killed in U.S. Airstrike in Yemen
by Publius
Posted September 30, 2011, 10:39 AM
The Washington Post reports that a senior Obama Administration official has confirmed Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American-born Muslim cleric who has been linked to al-Qaeda, dead today after his convoy was struck by a U.S. drone and jet in northern Yemen.
Al-Aulaqi was a national of both the United States and Yemen and has been implicated in inspiring several terrorist attacks in the U.S., including the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009, the infamous attempted "Underwear Bombing" aboard a plane bound for Detroit in December 2009, and the car bomb that failed to detonate in Times Square in May 2010.
Do such airstrikes in foreign countries on American citizens and others who are suspected of terrorism comply with U.S. law and the international laws of war? For more on that question, click here for a podcast from the Federalist Society's International & National Security Law Practice Group on "Predator Drones and Targeted Killings," and click here for an Engage article on the subject from Michael Lewis and Vincent Vitkowsky.