US determined to smoke out rest of Qaeda-clan in Pak, Yemen

Washington, May 7: The Obama administration seem to take little cognizance of Pakistan's fiery rhetoric that a violation of its sovereignty will lead to a catastrophe. In not less than 24 hours after the words were spoken, the matter was proved when the United Sates of America once again engaged in a drone strike on the remaining al-Qaeda stalwarts hiding in Pakistan. The focus have clearly shifted to Mullah Omar, Al Zawahiri and others featuring in the most wanted list.

The drone strike on Friday at the Datta Khel region in Pakistan saw the death of 12 militants. With US reaffirming that Pakistan still remains its strategic ally, we begin to wonder what alliance is working out and if it is strategy or diplomacy at play here.

The US carried out strikes in Yemen too to weed out the al-Qaeda head in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki. The specifically targeted strikes, according to reports from Washington suggest that they were aimed at the terrorist head. The US, however, missed the target when the drone hit a car in the province of Shabwa. On a mission to kill Awlaki, this was the first strike in Yemeni soil by the US since May 2010.

With the US turning its focus on Yemen's terror head, the superpower considers Awlaki the biggest threat after Osama. They seem to be stepping up efforts to bring an end to the terror activities perpetrated by him. Sources within Washington considers Yemen's al-Qaeda branch as the most potent and deadly among the terror cells across the world.

Awlaki is also believed to have recruited the Nigerian recruit Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was accused of an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airline on Dec 25, 2009; Maj Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 comrades in the Fort Hood shoot out in 2009, who apparently sought religious advice from Awlaki. Awalaki's provocative online sermons have also led to the incitement of terrorist activities among a lot of insurgents.

OneIndia News