Over the past decade, America’s elite terrorist hunters have been perfecting lethal strikes by unmanned flying drones — just like the sortie that took out al Qaeda loudmouth Anwar al-Awlaki.
The Awlaki operation was carried out by the heralded Joint Special Operations Command, the same CIA-Department of Defense team that took out Osama bin Laden in May.
This time, however, the JSOC tapped its formidable fleet of Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles to rain death on Awlaki and his propagandist protege Samir Khan, rather than a boots-on-the-ground assault.
Last June, the White House had authorized the CIA to expand its drone fleet in Yemen just as it had been doing in Pakistan.
The CIA had explicit authority to take out al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
It even built a special base somewhere in the “Persian Gulf region,” AP reported. The bases are likely located in US military installations in Djibouti and Qatar, according to media reports.
But US drones are no stranger to Yemen.
What is believed to be the first successful “kill mission” outside a war zone occurred in Yemen on Nov. 3, 2002, when a drone launched a missile at a vehicle carrying Abu Ali al-Harithi, an al Qaeda operative believed to be behind the 2000 USS Cole attack.
For the past ten years, the Air Force and CIA have been expanding their fleet of $5 million Predators and $12 million Reapers, a larger drone, to more than 250.
The drones started out doing surveillance in the mid-1990s, and first launched attacks in late 2001 in Afghanistan.
The remotely operated planes can be flown from mobile command centers in war zones or from bases back in the United States, including the New York Air National Guard’s own 174th Fighter Wing.
They are 27 feet in length with a 49-foot wingspan. Predators can carry Hellfire missiles, while Reapers can carry bombs weighing up to 500 pounds.
Each drone can stay airborne for 20 hours — some as long as 40 — and the Air Force operates around 20 different drone sorties a day in Afghanistan alone, providing US troops with surveillance and strike support.
There have been 262 drone attacks in Pakistan since 2008, according to reports at the New American Foundation, compared with 42 between 2001 and 2008.
Good riddance
Anwar al-Awlaki, US-born “external operations chief” of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed along with at least three other terrorists, including the Queens-raised publisher of the al Qaeda magazine.
MQ-1B Predator drone
Cost: $5M
Size: 27 feet long, 55-foot wingspan
Weapons: Carries 2 Hellfire missiles (inset left)
Power: 115 horsepower, up to 135 mph
* Can stay airborne for 20 to 40 hours
* Controlled by remote pilot and sensor operator
HOW WE GOT HIM
1. Awlaki was tracked to his hideout three weeks ago by Yemeni government intelligence.US drones and aircraft had kept close surveillance on the hideout since then.
2. The attack was launched at 9:55 a.m. (2:55 a.m. New York time) when an unmanned Predator drone aircraft appeared over his hideout near the eastern Yemen town of Khashef.
3. Awlaki was headed from his hideout to his car about 700 yards away after eating breakfast when one drone fired a 100-pound Hellfire missile, which killed members of his group.
4. Awlaki ran toward a Toyota pickup to escape, but a second Hellfire drone blew Awlaki to pieces.