In advance of President Barack Obama’s big speech on national security and counterterrorism tomorrow, the U.S. on Wednesday formally admitted what had been widely reported, that it had killed four American citizens in Pakistan and Yemen using drone strikes.
The New York Times reports:
In a letter to Congressional leaders obtained by The New York Times, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. disclosed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen.
The American responsibility for Mr. Awlaki’s death has been widely reported, but the administration had until now refused to confirm or deny it.
The letter also said that the United States had killed three other Americans: Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike, Mr. Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, who was also killed in Yemen, and Jude Mohammed, who was killed in a strike in Pakistan.
“These individuals were not specifically targeted by the United States,” Mr. Holder wrote.
