Al-Qaida's al-Awlaki killed in airstrike

File - This October 2008 file photo by Muhammad ud-Deen
shows Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. Yemen's Defense Ministry
said in a statement Friday Sept. 30, 2011 the U.S.-born al-Qaida cleric
Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed. (AP Photo/Muhammad ud-Deen, File)

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The Yemeni government has released an official statement saying the U.S.-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed. The government says al-Awlaki was targeted and killed 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the town of Khashef in the Province of al-Jawf. The town is located 87 miles (140 kilometers) east of the capital Sanaa. The statement says the operation was launched on Friday around 9:55 a.m. It gave no other details. If the death is confirmed, al-Awlaki would be the most prominent al-Qaida figure to be killed since Osama bin Laden's death in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in May. 

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