Anwar al-Awlaki

Al-Awlaki was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1971 to parents from Yemen.

Anwar al-Awlaki was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, US in 1971 to parents from Yemen, while his father, Nasser al-Awlaki, was doing graduate work at U.S. universities.

His father was a Fulbright Scholar who earned a master's degree in agricultural economics at New Mexico State University in 1971, received a doctorate at the University of Nebraska, and worked at the University of Minnesota from 1975 to 1977.

Nasser al-Awlaki served as Agriculture Minister in Ali Abdullah Saleh's government.

He was also President of Sana'a University.

The family returned to Yemen in 1978, when al-Awlaki was seven years old.

He lived there for 11 years, and studied at Azal Modern School.

Growing up partially in the United States and partially in Yemen, he attended various universities across the United States in the 1990s and early 2000s, while also working as an imam, despite having no religious qualifications and almost no religious education.

Additionally, three of the future September 11 attacks hijackers separately attended his sermons in the 1990s and early 2001.

In 1991, al-Awlaki returned to the U.S. to attend college.

In 1993, while still a college student in Colorado State's civil engineering program, al-Awlaki visited Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Soviet occupation.

He spent some time training with the mujahideen who had fought the Soviets.

He was depressed by the country's poverty and hunger, and "wouldn't have gone with al-Qaeda," according to friends from Colorado State, who said he was profoundly affected by the trip.

He earned a B.S. in civil engineering from Colorado State University (1994), where he was president of the Muslim Student Association.

Mullah Mohammed Omar did not form the Taliban until 1994.

When Al-Awlaki returned to campus, he showed increased interest in religion and politics.

Al-Awlaki studied Education Leadership at San Diego State University, but did not complete his degree.

In 1994, al-Awlaki married a cousin from Yemen, and began service as a part-time imam of the Denver Islamic Society.

In 1996, he was chastised by an elder for encouraging a Saudi student to fight in Chechnya against the Russians.

He worked on a doctorate in Human Resource Development at The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development from January to December 2001.

Al-Awlaki returned to Yemen in early 2004 and became a university lecturer after a brief stint as a public speaker in the United Kingdom.

He was detained by Yemeni authorities in 2006, where he spent 18 months in prison before being released without facing trial.

Following his release, Al-Awlaki's message started to become overtly supportive of violence, as he condemned the U.S. government's foreign policy towards Muslims.

Yemen's prime minister from 2007 to 2011, Ali Mohammed Mujur, was a relative.

He was linked to Nidal Hasan, the convicted perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

U.S. officials said that in 2009, al-Awlaki was promoted to the rank of "regional commander" within al-Qaeda, although they described his role as more "inspirational" than "operational."

He repeatedly called for jihad against the United States.

The Yemeni government tried him in absentia in November 2010, for plotting to kill foreigners and being a member of al-Qaeda.

A Yemeni judge ordered that he be captured "dead or alive".

In April 2010, al-Awlaki was placed on a CIA kill list by President Barack Obama due to his alleged terrorist activities.

Al-Awlaki's father and civil rights groups challenged the order in court.

Al-Awlaki was believed to be in hiding in southeast Yemen in the last years of his life.

Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki (أنور العولقي; April 21 or 22, 1971 – September 30, 2011) was an American Islamic scholar and lecturer who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama.

Al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a drone strike from the U.S. government.

The U.S. deployed unmanned aircraft (drones) in Yemen to search for and kill him, firing at and failing to kill him at least once; he was successfully killed on September 30, 2011.

Two weeks later, al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who was born in Denver, Colorado, was also killed by a CIA-led drone strike in Yemen.

U.S. government officials argued that Awlaki was a key organizer for the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda, and in June 2014, a previously classified memorandum issued by the U.S. Department of Justice was released, justifying al-Awlaki's death as a lawful act of war.

Civil liberties advocates have described the incident as "an extrajudicial execution" that breached al-Awlaki's constitutional right to due process, including a trial.

The New York Times wrote in 2015 that al-Awlaki's public statements and videos have been more influential in inspiring acts of Islamic terrorism in the wake of his killing than before his death.

His daughter, 8-year old Nawar al-Awlaki, was killed during a raid against Al-Qaeda ordered by President Donald Trump in 2017.