maintains citizenship in both the US and Yemen, has now added Iran to his list of enemies to be confronted by jihadis along with Israel and the United States.
Al-Awlaqi, who was born in New Mexico but now lives in Yemen, has been tied to terrorists and violent offenders such as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a US plane on December 25, and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 at Fort Hood, Texas.
He has become famous in the United States for his anti-American rants delivered in impeccable English. He encourages the killing of Americans, addressing them in an online video that surfaced Oct. 23 with, “It’s either us or you.”
Now, he is including Iran in the “you” group. The American monitoring group, SITE, reported al-Awlaqi as saying in his most recent 23-minute video posted on jihadist websites, “America and Israel are controlling our ummah [nation] and soon Iran will interfere to get its share of the pie.”
From behind a desk and wearing a sheathed dagger, Al-Awlaqi asserts in Arabic that like the US and Israel, Iran wants to take over Sunni areas and will make “Sunni citizens” its “first victims.” He accused Iran of working to “spread a deviant ideology in Yemen,” where al-Awlaqi currently resides.
The Islamic Republic has denied accusations by some Yemenis that it supports northern rebels practicing the Zaidi branch of Shiism.