Anwar al-Awlaki was described as "chief of external operations" for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.<br /><br />Awlaki was a western-educated American citizen who spoke fluent English who rejected his adopted country for the militant ideology of al-Qaeda.<br /><br />"Don't consult with anybody in the killing of Americans. Fighting the devil doesn't require consultation or prayers seeking divine guidance," he has said. "They are the party of the devils."<br /><br />Awlaki studied civil engineering in the United States but worked as a Muslim preacher and lecturer of religion in the late 1990s.<br /><br />He travelled to Yemen in 2004, where he established contact with Islamist groups fighting the government in Sanaa.<br /><br />Awlaki is thought to have helped oversee a plot in October 2010 to detonate explosives aboard a US-bound cargo plane.<br /><br />He is also said to have had contact with Major Nidal Hassan, the man behind the Ford Hood army base shootings in 2009 and to have played a role in the attempted "Christmas Day" attack later that year.<br /><br />"Yes, Nidal Hassan was one of my students and I am proud of that. I am proud of Nidal Hasan and this was a heroic and wonderful act," Awlaki has said.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's Khadijah Magardie reports.
