The American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was reportedly killed in Yemen on Friday, was said to have inspired both the Fort Dix, N.J., and Times Square terror plots, USA LOCAL NEWS has learned.
The government of Yemen reported that al-Awlaki was targeted and killed Friday about five miles from the town of Khashef, some 87 miles from the capital Sanaa.
He is the most prominent al-Qaida figure to be killed since Osama bin Laden's death in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in May.
Al-Awlaki claimed responsibility for the so-called Christmas day underwear bomber who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit and the plot to send printer cartridges packed with explosives to the United States.
He was also questioned in regard to contacts he had with at least two of the 9/11 terrorists who attacked the U.S. on 9/11. Al-Awlaki was never charged in the 9/11 attack, though for many years preached support for attacks on United States soil.
Three of the suspected hijackers attended his sermons.
In May, Faisal Shahzad, the Connecticut man who pleaded guilty to driving a car bomb into Times Square with the intent to cause mass destruction and deaths, told authorities al-Awlaki "inspired" him.
The high-ranking terrorist also was believed to have inspired the 2007 Fort Dix plot, in which six radicalists conspired to wage an attack against the United States military personnel stationed at the New Jersey base.
Al-Awlaki himself was tied to Army Major Nidal Hasan, who went on a shooting spree in Fort Hood, Texas.
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