A U.S. drone targeted al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, killing him along with other three figures in a strike in north of the country Friday.

A U.S. drone targeted al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, killing him along with other three figures in a strike in north of the country Friday.

Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen and one of the world’s most influential al-Qaeda leaders, was killed along with Samir Khan, the co-editor of an al-Qaeda magazine, and two other unidentified al-Qaeda operatives.
The assassination o the 40-years old figure, comes five months after U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda network, in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

For his part, U.S. President Barack Obama called Awlaki’s death “a major blow to al-Qaeda’s most active operational affiliate”, describing Awlaki as “the leader of external operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” a group known as AQAP.
“In that role, he took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans,” Obama said.

Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, was believed to implicate in helping to motivate several attacks in the United States.
He was thought to have inspired an Army officer who was charged with killing 13 people in a November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., a Nigerian student accused of attempting to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner the following month and a Pakistani-American man who tried to set off a car bomb in New York City in May 2010.
Awlaki was also thought to be linked to an attempt in 2010 to send parcel bombs on cargo planes bound for the United States.

Yemen has been for about eight months braced for anti-government protests. Saleh returned to Sanaa two weeks ago after he received medical treatment in Saudi Arabia following a deadly attack that targeted his presidential palace.
Saleh has long portrayed himself as a U.S. ally who is essential to counterterrorism efforts. Critics say that his refusal to resign is the main source of instability in the country and that his government has allowed al-Qaeda to thrive on Yemeni soil.

On Friday, Yemeni officials were pointing to Aulaqi’s death as evidence of Saleh’s effectiveness as a U.S. partner, while opposition leaders said they feared that it would ease international pressure on the president to step aside.