Cleric's jihad call for US troops

DUBAI: Radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi has urged all Muslims serving in the United States' army to follow the example of Major Nidal Hassan, who stands accused of killing 13 of his comrades in November, in a video posted on Sunday.

"What Nidal Hassan did was heroic ... and I call on all Muslims serving in the US army to follow his path," he said in a video posted by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula on jihadist websites, the US monitoring group SITE reported. "Nidal Hassan is one of my students and I am honoured by that," Awlaqi said in the video, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified.

Major Nidal Hasan, a US army psychiatrist, is accused of having opened fire on colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people in November.

In a "wonderful" action, "he killed American soldiers on their way to Afghanistan and Iraq," said Awlaqi, adding that Hasan, who is of Palestinian origin, was "defending his nation."

In an interview with the Washington Post in November, Awlaqi said he had blessed the Fort Hood shooting, and that it was permissible under Islam because it was against a military target.

Awlaqi also defended Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student who is accused of a failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound passenger plane with explosives last Christmas.

The operation "was very successful even though it did not even kill anyone," he said.

"Those who were to be killed in the plane are nothing compared to ... a million women and children in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan," whom he accused the US military of having killed.

"We must treat them the same way and attack them just like they've attacked us," Awlaqi said.
US officials said in April that President Barack Obama's administration had authorised operations to capture or kill Awlaki. Yemen has said it will not hand over Awlaki, whose family is well-known in Yemen, but instead put him on trial if he is arrested.
Born in New Mexico, Awlaki led prayers at mosques in the United States. He returned to Yemen in 2004 where he taught at a university before he was arrested and imprisoned in 2006 for suspected links to al-Qaida and involvement in attacks.