US drone missions flown from Saudi base

US: The high-profile US drone strike that killed American-born radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen was partly conducted from a secret air base in Saudi Arabia, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The base was established two years ago as part of US efforts to intensify the pursuit of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a grouping of the Yemeni and Saudi offshoots of the global terror network, the newspaper said.

The disclosure of Saudi Arabia’s role in the drone program that is run by the CIA and US military’s Joint Special Operations Command is likely to add to debate and increasing scrutiny about whether use of such strikes is legal.

The September 2011 killing of Awlaki stoked concern because he and Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who also died in the strike, were US citizens who had never been charged with a crime.

The White House on Tuesday defended drone strikes against Al-Qaeda suspects as legal, ethical and wise and insisted that they complied with US law and the constitution, even if they targeted Americans.

AFP