Yemeni fighter jets, acting on intelligence provided in part by the United States, struck what the Yemeni government said was a meeting of Al Qaeda operatives early Thursday morning, and officials suggested that a radical cleric tied to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings may have been among the 30 people killed.
A statement by the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said the air strike targeted a gathering of “scores” of Qaeda members from Yemen and other countries, including the network’s two top leaders in Yemen, in a remote corner of southern Yemen. The statement said the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, was “presumed to be at the site.”
The government of Yemen, which has long been a haven for terrorists, has been carrying out strikes that appear to be directed against Al Qaeda’s growing presence in the country.
The group, whose regional affiliate is known as Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, has mounted frequent attacks against foreign embassies and Yemeni officials in the last two years, adding to the security threats in Yemen that include an armed rebellion in the north and a secessionist movement in the south. There is no indication that the various insurgents targeting Yemen’s government are cooperating, but the concurrent crises have weakened the state’s ability to react.
Yemeni security forces carried out airstrikes and ground raids against suspected Qaeda hideouts last week with what American officials described as “intelligence and firepower” supplied by the United States. The assaults marked Yemen’s widest offensive against jihadists in years. Government forces hit bases in Abyan, a lawless, mountainous area in the south, as well as in the cities of Arhab and Sana, the capital.
Yemeni officials said they had made targets of the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, and his deputy, Said Ali al-Shihri, who were believed to be at the meeting with Mr. Awlaki. Mr. Shihri was held for five years in the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and after his release in 2007 went through a Saudi rehabilitation program. But he joined Al Qaeda after his return to Yemen, marking a notable failure for the Saudi program, which American officials generally admire.
Although Mr. Awlaki, 38, has not been accused of planting bombs or carrying out terrorist attacks himself, his online sermons champion a radicalized vision of Islam, and he has been linked to numerous terrorism suspects, including Nidal Malik Hasan, the American Army major who faces murder charges in the shooting deaths of 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in November.
Major Hasan and the American-born cleric exchanged about 20 e-mail messages, and shortly after the shootings, Mr. Awlaki praised Major Hasan as a hero.
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