American al-Qaeda leaders killed in U.S. counterterror strikes
Two Americans who joined al-Qaeda and rose to leadership positions in the terrorist organizations died in January counterterrorism operations that also killed an American and an Italian hostage, the White House said Thursday.
The counterterrorism operations struck an al-Qaeda-associated compound and other areas in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House said.
The strike that killed hostages Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto also killed Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an al-Qaeda leader, the White House statement said. Adam Gadahn, another American who became a prominent member and spokesman for al-Qaeda, was likely killed in a separate U.S. counterterrorism operation, the White House said.
"While both Farouq and Gadahn were al-Qaeda members, neither was specifically targeted, and we did not have information indicating their presence at the sites of these operations," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.
Gadahn, 36, a California-born Muslim convert, emerged as a spokesman for al-Qaeda as the English-speaking narrator for al-Qaeda's first propaganda video, "The Destruction of the Destroyer USS Cole," said Evan Kohmann, a terrorism analyst for Flashpoint Partners and a government consultant.
Gadahn grew up on a farm in Orange County, Calif., where his parents raised goats. Although his grandfather was Jewish, Gadahn's father converted to Christianity and raised his children as Christians. Gadahn became Muslim in 1995 at the age of 17 and worshipped at the Islamic Society of Orange County until he was kicked out for getting in a fistfight with a mosque leader.
The spat in May 1997 resulted in assault and battery charges. He pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced to two days in jail and 40 hours of community service, court records show. He failed to complete the terms of his sentence and was charged in September with contempt of court for willful disobedience. A warrant for his arrest remains outstanding.
Gadahn left the country in 1998 and FBI Director Robert Mueller said he trained at terrorist camps in Afghanistan.
In 2006, Gadahn became the first American charged with treason since World War II when a federal grand jury indicted him in California.The FBI added him to its "Most Wanted Terrorists" and offered up to $1 million for tips leading to his arrest.
He operated under a number of aliases, including Abu Suhayb al-Amriki and Azzam the American, and was cited in the indictment for making a series of propaganda videos broadcast between October 2004 and Sept. 11, 2006 for al-Qaeda, including one in which he praised the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington as "blessed raids" and referred to the United States as "enemy soil."
In a 2004 video, the FBI said, Gadahn identified himself as Azzam the American, confirmed his relationship with al-Qaeda, called Sept. 11 "the opening salvo of the global war on America" and announced, "The streets of America shall run with blood."
"We love peace, but when the enemy violates that peace or prevents us from achieving it, then we love nothing better than the heat of battle, the echo of explosions, and slitting the throats of the infidels," Gadahn said in a video released on Sept. 11, 2005.
Farouq, also known as Obaid Ullah and Ustad Ahmed Farooq, is thought to be the deputy head of Al-Qaeda on the Indian Subcontinent. Media reports in Pakistan note al-Qaeda confirmed earlier this month that Farouq died in an American airstrike in the third week of January.
In 2012, the International Relations and Security Network, a think tank in Zurich, Switzerland, reported al- Qaeda promoted Farouq to lead the group's media operation, Al Sahab, in Pakistan, which includes an Urdu language publication. He had previously led Harkat-e-Jihad ul Islami, also known as the 313 Brigade, considered the most violent and feared al-Qaeda group in Pakistan.