US stands behind Awlaki killing and offers no apologies

Awlaki previously called for attacks against the US Yemeni medical and military officials say a government warplane has mistakenly bombed an army position in the country's south, killing at least 30 soldiers. The officials said on  Sunday that the bombing took place on Saturday evening in the southern Abyan province amid fighting with militants. The officials say the soldiers of the army's 119th brigade were stationed at an abandoned school just outside the capital of Abyan province, Zinjibar. Militants linked to al-Qaida control Zinjibar. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni youth movement behind the months-long uprising against Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for the embattled president to face trial in the International Criminal Court.
 The youth movement said in a letter to the United Nations that at least 861 people have been killed and some 25,000 others wounded since January when mass anti-government demonstrations demanding Saleh's resignation began.
 "We call on the UN to refer Saleh, his sons and his gang to the International Criminal Court for their crimes against peaceful protesters." - youth letter to UN.
The US State Department has issued a new travel warning for Yemen, in light of the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born cleric.A department warning issued Saturday said the death would provide motivationfor individuals or groups to retaliate against US citizens or American interests.
 It noted that Awlaki and other members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula previously called for attacks against the US, and the warning says his supporters could seek to avenge his death.
The US Department of Defense announced on Friday morning that the US-born Yemeni Al-Qaeda member, Anwar Al-Awlaki, had been killed, without providing further details of the killing. Sources told Arabstoday that Awlaqi was killed early Friday morning in an air raid that hit two vehicles travelling through an al-Qaeda stronghold in central Yemen. The same sources said the US plane, equipped with missiles, targeted Awlaqi’s three-car convoy, killing Awlaqi, Samir Khan (the chief of Inspire magazine, al Qaeda’s English publication), along with three others. Another three were seriously injured. Government officials say Awlaqi was killed 8km from the town of Khashef in the province of al-Jawf, just 140km from Sanaa.
United States President Barack Obama has called the killing of Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki a "major blow to al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate" but offered no apologies for the unprecedented manner in which he was killed. "We will be determined, we will be deliberate, we will be relentless, we will be resolute in our commitment to destroy terrorist networks that aim to kill Americans," Obama told reporters in Washington.
Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, said the US justice department had refused to provide any legal justifications for the killings. The US Department of Justice, according to Jordan, insisted "they had every right to go after a person they say engaged in treasonous behaviour and will not offer any apologies for going after al-Qaeda in any part of the world".
The White House refused to confirm reports that CIA drone aircraft and other military assets had mounted the raid, keeping a veil of secrecy over its anti-terror operations as it continued to raise pressing new ethical, diplomatic and legal headaches for US national security planners.
Analysts say the recent spate of killings reflected an evolving and aggressive strategy to snare terror suspects in areas once seen as havens but others were appalled at the stance now being adopted by Washington
Awlaki raised serious concerns in the West after appealing to Muslims in the United States and Europe through his letters, recordings and online activities.
He has urged Muslims living in the West to carry out attacks in their countries.
A Yemeni official denounced the United States for calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, saying that Washington is showing a lack of respect f or democracy and for its counter-terrorism partners.
Abdu al-Janadi, the deputy information minister, told Reuters news agency:
 "After this big victory in catching Awlaki, the White House calls on the president to leave power immediately? The Americans don't even respect those who cooperate with them ... President Saleh was an elected president ... They called on us to be partners in the fight against terrorism. The president suffered a great deal for the war on terror. From their position, it seems they do not respect democracy."
Saleh has been seen as an inconstant partner to the West in its fight against al-Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, sometimes helping US-led efforts and sometimes, his critics say, exploiting the militant threat to win more support from abroad, Reuters reported.
Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch issued a new claim of  deadly attacks dated on the same day that one of its top leaders, US-born  cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in an apparent US drone strike.
In the statement received by AFP in the main southern Yemeni city Aden,  Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed a series of attacks in the south but made no mention of Awlaqi's death in an air strike east of Sanaa on Friday. AQAP said it had killed 130 Yemeni troops in an attack on a garrison in the  Abyan provincial capital Zinjibar, east of Aden, on September 14. It said it had killed two Yemeni soldiers in an attack on September 11 and 10 in another the following day.