ADEN, Yemen — Ten months ago, a tribal leader spotted Anwar al-Aulaqi, the Yemeni American cleric whom U.S. officials consider a top operative of the world’s most worrisome terrorist group.
“He was at a funeral,” said Saleh Ali al-Duriya, who lives a 15-minute drive away from Aulaqi’s tribal village.
Three months ago, Aulaqi was “walking freely” in Ataq, the capital of a remote southeastern province, said Mohsin Bin Farid, his uncle and an opposition leader. “So many people saw him,” he said.
For months, the United States has urged Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to capture Aulaqi, a 39-year-old born in New Mexico who has been implicated in several attacks on U.S. soil. In April, the Obama administration authorized his targeted killing.
Even before the outbreak of a popular uprising that threatens to topple Saleh’s government, Yemen’s efforts to capture Aulaqi were plagued by limited resources and lack of governmental authority in the southern part of the country, where he is suspected to be hiding. But now, with the government struggling for its survival, Yemeni officials say the quest to find Aulaqi has become even less of a priority, and the chances of one of the world’s most wanted men continuing to escape capture are even greater.
In recent days, Saleh’s hold on power has appeared increasingly fragile as top generals and diplomats have defected. He has also lost the support of key tribes, which are resentful of a government they view as corrupt, nepotistic and incapable of providing even basic services.
With no clear plan for transitioning power should Saleh fall, there is a risk of deeper instability in Yemen — which Aulaqi and his allies could seek to exploit. Even if Saleh survives, his government’s capacity to confront Aulaqi and other terrorism suspects would probably be severely constrained.
“We have to deal with these political problems first. Finding Aulaqi is not on anyone’s mind,” said a senior ruling party official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive, especially to the United States, which considers Saleh a vital counterterrorism ally.
Aulaqi, who lived in Virginia and was the imam of a mosque in Falls Church, left the United States in 2002. He was detained in Yemen in 2006 at the request of the United States but was released later that year.
He is thought to have taken up residence in Yemen’s restive south and has since been linked to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., and the failed plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day the same year. U.S. officials allege that Aulaqi had graduated from inspiring attacks to orchestrating them as a top operative in al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Since then, Aulaqi has continued rising to the upper echelons of the group. In November, AQAP asserted responsibility for a plot in which parcel bombs ended up on cargo planes bound for the United States. Aulaqi is thought to have played a role in creating Inspire, an English-language magazine published by the terrorist group that is intended to recruit Westerners.
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