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Public Safety

Ex-San Diego Cleric And Al-Qaida Leader Tied to Paris Terrorists

In this image taken from video and released by SITE Intelligence Group on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010, Anwar al-Awlaki speaks in a video message posted on radical websites. Al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric who attended San Diego State University, was killed in a U.S. drone attack in September 2011.
AP Photo / SITE Intelligence Group
In this image taken from video and released by SITE Intelligence Group on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010, Anwar al-Awlaki speaks in a video message posted on radical websites. Al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric who attended San Diego State University, was killed in a U.S. drone attack in September 2011.

One of the suspects in this week’s massacre in Paris claimed ties to former San Diego imam and al-Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki , who was killed by U.S. forces in September 2011.

Before suspected Paris shooter Chérif Kouachi and his brother were killed by police, he told a French TV station they had been financed by al-Awlaki in Yemen. Reuters has quoted a Yemeni source confirming Chérif Kouachi's brother, Said, met with al-Awlaki before the latter was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

Al-Awlaki was an imam for four years at a La Mesa mosque where authorities say he met regularly with two of the 9/11 hijackers who lived for a time in San Diego. In 1999, he also enrolled in a master’s degree program in educational leadership at San Diego State University.

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Another former San Diegan, Jehad Mostafa, is on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list. He is believed to have met with al-Awlaki in Yemen several years ago before leaving to fight for the terrorist group al-Shabab in Somalia.

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