Yemen: Drone kills Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaqi

The defence ministry in Sanaa said he was killed along with several other suspected Al-Qaeda operatives on Friday, and tribal sources said he died in a strike on two vehicles in Marib province, an Al-Qaeda stronghold in eastern Yemen.

Awlaqi was charged in November in Yemen for alleged ties with Al-Qaeda and incitement to kill foreigners.

Washington had linked the imam and son of a former Yemeni government minister to a shooting rampage in November 2009 at a US army base and to a botched Christmas Day attack that year on a US airliner.

A Yemeni court, under mounting US pressure to fight Al-Qaeda after a foiled air cargo bomb plot in late October last year, had ordered his arrest by any means for his alleged Al-Qaeda links.

“Mr Awlaqi is a problem,” US President Barack Obama s counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said in January, 2010. “He s clearly a part of Al-Qaeda in (the) Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He s not just a cleric.”

Brennan directly accused Awlaqi of having links with Major Nidal Hasan who is suspected of shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas, and who is set to face trial in a military court on March 5, 2012.

Awlaqi may also have had contact with Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of trying to blow up the Christmas Day plane, Brennan said.

Obama has accused AQAP of arming and training Abdulmutallab and said the group was also responsible for last October s parcel bomb plot, which originated in Yemen.

Two parcels addressed to Jewish institutions in Chicago and containing the explosive PETN hidden in ink toner cartridges were found to have been freighted from Sanaa on commercial airlines.

In July, 2010, Washington placed Awlaqi on its list of terrorism supporters, freezing his financial assets and banning any transactions with him.

In a video tape posted by AQAP on jihadist websites in May last year Awlaqi, who is in his late 30s, urged Muslims serving in the US army to follow Hasan s example and also defended Abdulmutallab.

Awlaqi, in a later Internet posting in November, went a step further and called for the murder of any US citizen. “Do not consult anyone in killing Americans,” he said, the US monitoring group SITE Intelligence reported.

“Killing the devil does not need any fatwa (religious edict),” he added. “It s either us or you,” Awlaqi said, addressing Americans in the video.

In May last year, the United States said it was actively hunting Awlaqi. “He has an agenda just like Al-Qaeda to strike targets in Yemen, throughout the world including here in the United States,” the White House spokesman said.

But an Awlaqi relative has insisted the imam “is not a fighter of Al-Qaeda.” “He is just a preacher,” he said.
Awlaqi comes from a well-off family. His father is a former minister of agriculture and was the president of the university of Sanaa.

He was born in the US state of New Mexico in 1971, attended school in Yemen and graduated from Colorado State University in civil engineering. He also holds a master s degree in education leadership from San Diego State University.

He made a name for himself delivering sermons in English in mosques across the United States, where he also worked for a charity association founded by Yemeni cleric Abdul Majeed al-Zendani, whom the US government has identified as a “global terrorist.”

Awlaqi met two of the bombers on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon building in the United States on September 11, 2001, according to the 9/11 Commission Report.

Awlaqi was arrested in Yemen in 2006 for his role in kidnapping the son of a rich Yemeni family and demanding ransom money “to finance Al-Qaeda,” Yemeni security sources said.

Two years later he was set free on condition that he report to police daily, but he fled to the eastern Shabwa region.
Awlaqi went to ground after an air raid on December 24, 2009 struck a meeting of Al-Qaeda leaders in Wadi Rafadh, in Shabwa province, killing 34.

In May this year, a Yemeni tribal source said Awlaqi narrowly escaped a US drone attack three days after American commandos killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The strike in Shabwa was the first reported US targeting of other key figures in the terror network after a commando raid killed bin Laden inside Pakistan on May 2.

Awlaqi was married with five children.

Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Suspended from Parliament

Malaysia’s ruling coalition has won a parliamentary vote to ban its archrival Anwar Ibrahim from the legislature for six months.

Anwar was accused of making false statements in Parliament’s lower house by linking the Muslim-majority government’s policies to Israel. Anwar had said a government campaign to promote multiracial unity was inspired by a 1999 Israeli election campaign. Lawmakers are expected to endorse another proposal later Thursday to suspend three of Anwar’s top allies for six months because of protocol infractions.

The move would erode the opposition’s representation to less than one-third of the 222-member Parliament for the first time since March 2008 general elections. That could allow the ruling coalition to make changes to election constituency boundaries before the next national polls.

Babar Awan calls on SC Bar President, gives Rs. 1 million cheque

Federal Law Minister Babar Awan called on the President of Supreme Court Bar Association Qazi Anwar here on Monday, Dunya News reported. The federal minister gave a cheque worth Rs. 1 million to Qazi Anwar.
Qazi Anwar welcomed the minister upon arrival in the bar in Islamabad. Qazi Anwar said that the cheque was due since March this year and soon after receiving the cheque he gave it to the employees of the bar. Qazi Anwar told the media personnel that he has advised the federal minister that there should be a continuous contact and correspondence between the bar and the federal law ministry.
Federal Law Minister said that there are a few matters that require all of us to sit together and resolve. He also said that there is a need of strengthening the constitutional system of the country to progress and develop. We cannot afford to amend or alter the constitution, he added, legislative process is not up to the expectations. The law ministry seeks guidance from the bar councils, bar associations and the Supreme Court Bar Association.

FBI wanted terrorist Fahd killed in drone attack: Telegraph

According to reports of a British newspaper, one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists was killed alongside a Briton in a drone attack in Pakistan in September targeting Al-Qaeda operatives planning a Mumbai-style attack in Europe.
Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Al-Quso, 35, allegedly met two of the September 11 hijackers and was said to be involved in the bombing of the USS Cole. He was thought to be with the radical preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen but reports from Pakistan suggested he had been killed there.
Another senior Al-Qaeda commander Sheikh Fateh al-Masri, also known as Abdul Razzaq, was also reported killed in the drone attack in Datta Khel, near Miranshah in North Waziristan.

Wanted terrorists Fahd killed in drone attack: Telegraph

According to reports of a British newspaper, one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists was killed alongside a Briton by a drone attack in Pakistan in September targeting Al-Qaeda operatives planning a Mumbai-style attack in Europe.
Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Al-Quso, 35, allegedly met two of the September 11 hijackers and was said to be involved in the bombing of the USS Cole. He was thought to be with the radical preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen but reports from Pakistan suggested he had been killed there. Another senior Al-Qaeda commander Sheikh Fateh al-Masri, also known as Abdul Razzaq, was also reported killed in the drone attack in Datta Khel, near Miranshah in North Waziristan.

Broad fined for throwing ball at Zulqarnain

DUBAI: England fast bowler Stuart Broad has been fined 50 percent of his match fee for throwing a ball in a dangerous manner toward Pakistan batsman Zulqarnain Haider on the third day of the second cricket test at Edgbaston on Sunday.

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Broad fined for throwing ball at Zulqarnain

SCBA to move SC against media ban: Anwar

BIRMINGHAM: The Supreme Court Bar Association would file a petition challenging ban on transmissions of various media channels, if Supreme Court of Pakistan did not take suo-moto action against the issue, president SCBA Qazi Anwar pledged on Monday.

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SCBA to move SC against media ban: Anwar

Geo News reporter attacked in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Unknown assailant(s) opened fire at Geo News’ reporter Anwar Kamal, injuring him seriously, Geo News reported Saturday.

He was rushed to a local hospital where he is being provided medical aid.

Anwar Kamal was on his way to Karachi in Geo’s van after covering Dadu-Manchar Lake when unknown gunmen on motorcycle opened fire at him.

18th Amendment Bill contains 100 recommendations

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms, Mian Raza Rabbani Friday presented the committee report containing 100 recommendations to restore the 1973 Constitution in its original form.

The landmark document that emerged after nine months marathon delibarations has proposed to do away with the notorious 52/2B, LFO, 6th and 7th schedule as well as the most demanded concurrent list.

In a very charged atmosphere in the House Rabbani presented 100 proposals to amend the Constitution amid continued thumping of desk across the divide.

PM, COAS call on President

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Friday.

Matters relating to security situation and recently concluded strategic dialogue with the United States were discussed during the meeting, a press release said.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Finance Advisor, also joined the meeting.

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