Tuesday, October 18, 2011

American drone also kills Awlaki's teenage son

Abdel Rahman al-Awlaki
The Yemeni paper Yemen Post reports that an American drone has also killed the 17-year old son of the muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was supposedly a member of Al-Qaedi of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Anwar al-Awlaki was killed on 30 September. The Post reports that according to the al-Awlaki family back in Sana'a, Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki, the cleric's son would have run away from home after news of his father's death in a desperate bid to find him.
The 17 year-old was killed subsequently in an American air raid this Friday.  Outraged, his family is now speaking out against what they call a murder. "To kill a teenager is just unbelievable, really, and they claim that he is an al-Qaida militant. It's nonsense," said Nasser al-Awlaki, the boy's grandfather and former Yemeni agriculture minister. "They want to justify his killing, that's all,' he added.
Anwar al-Awlaki


Time reported Abdul Rahman's death also - on 27 October:  According to his relatives, Abdulrahman left the family home in the Sana'a area on Sept. 30 in search of his fugitive father who was hiding out with his tribe, the Awalak, in the remote, rugged southern province of Shabwa. Days after the teenager began his quest, however, his father was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Then, just two weeks later, the Yemeni government claimed another air strike killed a senior al-Qaeda militant. Abdulrahman, his teenage cousin and six others died in the attack as well. A U.S. official said the young man "was in the wrong place at the wrong time," and that the U.S. was trying to kill a legitimate terrorist — al-Qaeda leader Ibrahim al-Banna, who also died — in the strike that apparently killed the American teenager. Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki who was like his father a U.S citizen, was killed with his cousin, also a 17 year-old, in an American led Drone attack, which the U.S is justifying by claiming they were after alleged al-Qaeda militants. Since the death of the 2 underage boys, the U.S has been trying to spin the story by issuing a statement describing Abdu Rahman as a 20 year-old al-Qaeda militant, when indeed he was only a boy searching for his father. U.S officials have said that they were still assessing the details of the attack.

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