Sanaa: A US drone attack in Yemen targeted but failed to kill one of al-Qaeda’s most influential figures, US reports say. The US-born radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Two brothers believed to be mid-ranking al-Qaeda officials died in a drone strike in south Yemen on Thursday, Yemeni officials said.
The attack came just days after al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US Navy Seals.
The Pentagon refused to comment on the reports that Anwar al-Awlaki was specifically targeted in Yemen.
According to Yemen’s defence ministry, the missile fired by the drone hit a car in the province of Shabwa carrying two brothers, identified by Yemeni officials as Musa’id and Abdullah Mubarak.
But reports from Washington now suggest US commanders had believed they had one of al-Qaeda’s most valuable targets in their sights.
“We were hoping it was him,” one unnamed US official told media.
The reported attempt to kill Awlaki is believed to be the first known US military strike within Yemen since May 2010, when missiles mistakenly killed one of Saleh’s envoys.
In September the country’s foreign minister said that such unmanned strikes had been suspended.
The report comes as Yemenis continue to take to the streets to demand that Ali Abdullah Saleh, president for 30 years, step down.
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