CAIRO, (AP) – An American-Yemeni cleric whose Internet sermons have helped inspire attacks on the U.S. is advocating the killing of American civilians in a new al-Qaeda video.
Anwar al-Awlaki has been singled out by U.S. officials as a top terrorist threat and has reportedly been added to the CIA’s list of targets for assassination despite his American citizenship.
The U.S.-born al-Awlaki moved to Yemen in 2004 and is in hiding there after being linked to the suspects in the November shooting at an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, and the December attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner bound for Detroit.
In a video posted Sunday, al-Awlaki justifies civilian deaths by accusing Americans of intentionally killing a million Muslim civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.