It was perhaps the most successful single strike in the history of America's controversial unmanned drone programme. Not only did the attack in Yemen kill firebrand American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, but it also appears to have silenced one of militant Islam's best known propagandists and one of the world's most feared bomb-makers.
Samir Khan who, like Awlaki, was an American citizen, is now believed to have also died in the missile strike as he travelled with Awlaki. Khan occupied a unique position in the murky work of al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula (AQAP) as the editor of the sophisticated terrorist online magazine, Inspire. It is a vital recruiting tool for AQAP, as well an effective way of touting its beliefs in English. Khan, who grew up in North Carolina, brought his expertise with computers to the website as well as his intimate knowledge of life in the west.
Killing Khan alone would have been a significant achievement for the CIA-operated drone programme. That he was killed alongside Awlaki was double the triumph. But unofficially the US now believes that a third terrorist was also killed: Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri.
Though his death has not been confirmed Asiri is also thought to have been travelling with Awlaki when the drone struck. Asiri is a master bomb-maker whose fingerprints were said to have been found on the device worn by the so-called "underwear bomber" who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit in 2009. He is also suspected of having made the bombs that AQAP tried to ship to the US last year using postal services, and disguised inside printer cartridges.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/01/yemen-drone-killing-ibrahim-al-asiriri
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