"Boston Yemeni Killed in Missile Strike (Is) US National US officials confirm Ahmad Hijazi killed in CIA-led missile strike against al-Qaeda members in Yemen is US national. WASHINGTON - One of six people killed in Yemen in a CIA-led missile strike against suspected al-Qaeda members was a US citizen, The Washington Post said Friday quoting a senior US officials. Identified as Ahmad Hijazi, the US national was not born in the United States but resided here for an unknown time. He was also a citizen of an unidentified Middle Eastern country, said the official who was not named. On Thursday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he was not yet able to confirm the report out of Yemen. "We don't have enough information to determine whether this name is a particular American or not," he said. (But) Yemeni security sources on Thursday had identified Hijazi as one of the six men killed when the vehicle they were travelling in exploded in eastern Yemen on Sunday, in an operation attributed to the Central Intelligence Agency. The man was described as the leader of a group of six suspected Al-Qaeda associates arrested near Buffalo, New York, in September, CBS News reported. The vehicle was reportedly destroyed by a missile fired by a pilotless CIA drone aircraft that had been tracking it, according to media reports that were later implicitly confirmed by US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The State Department said it had indefinitely closed the US embassy in Sanaa, fearing reports of Washington's involvement in the missile strike may spark retaliatory attacks. The Yemeni sources said Hijazi and the other five were "dangerous elements" of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network wanted for "involvement in terrorist acts that harmed the national interests of Yemen." The highest-ranking of the six, Ali Qaeda Sunian al-Harithi, also known as Abu Ali, was main instigator of the terrorist acts, the sources said. US defense officials on Monday named Harithi as a key planner of the suicide attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 in the Yemeni port city of Aden that left 17 American sailors dead.
-AIT