Wanted Yemeni Cleric Calls for American Deaths

A U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric has called for the killing of Americans in a new video posted on a radical Muslim website.
Anwar al-Awlaki referred to Americans as "the devil," adding that killing them does not require special religious permission known as a fatwa.

Awlaki said in the 23-minute video that it was either "us or them."

Yemeni authorities have charged the cleric with incitement to kill foreigners. Both the U.S. and Yemen have authorized his capture either dead or alive.

Awlaki has been linked to the failed plot involving a would-be suicide bomber who brought explosives onto a passenger jet bound for the U.S. city of Detroit last December.

Robert Powell of The Economist discusses Al-Qaida in Yemen with VOA's Susan Yackee:


U.S. authorities also have examined the cleric's possible role in encouraging a shooting spree that killed 13 people at a U.S. Army base in Texas one year ago.