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Yemeni-American Muslim Cleric Urges Muslims to Kill US Soldiers

   23 May 2010
   Still  image  from  video,  courtesy of the SITE, a for-profit private
   group  tracking  suspected  terrorists, shows Anwar al-Awlaki from the
   Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), 22 May 2010

Photo: AFP

   Still  image  from  video,  courtesy of the SITE, a for-profit private
   group  tracking  suspected  terrorists, shows Anwar al-Awlaki from the
   Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), 22 May 2010

   A  radical  U.S.-born  Muslim  cleric is urging Muslims serving in the
   U.S. Army to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

   In  a  video  posted  Sunday  on  Islamist  militant  websites,  Anwar
   al-Awlaki  said  he  justifies  the  deaths  of  U.S. soldiers because
   Americans  have  intentionally  killed  what  he said were millions of
   Muslim civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.

   He also praised U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing
   13 people last year at Fort Hood, a U.S. military base in the southern
   state  of  Texas.  He said in the video that Hasan performed a "heroic
   act."

   Last   month,   U.S.  officials  said  the  Obama  administration  had
   authorized  the  CIA  to capture or kill Awlaki, an al-Qaida operative
   born in the U.S. to Yemeni parents.

   Awlaki   is   believed  to  be  hiding  in  a  mountainous  region  in
   southeastern Yemen's Shabwa province.

   Yemen  intensified  its  campaign against al-Qaida militants after the
   group's  local  branch,  al-Qaida  in  the  Arabian Peninsula, claimed
   responsibility  for  the  failed bombing of a U.S.-bound passenger jet
   last December.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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