Cleric Urges Muslim GIs to Kill Comrades

Radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi urged all Muslims serving in the US army to follow the example of Major Nidal Hassan who stands accused of killing 13 of his comrades, in a video posted on Sunday.

"What Nidal Hassan did was heroic ... and I call on all Muslims serving in the US army to follow his path," Awlaqi said in footage released by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's and carried by the US monitoring group SITE.

"Nidal Hassan is one of my students and I am honoured by that," he said in the video, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified.

Major Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, is accused of having opened fire on colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people in November.

In a "wonderful" action, "he killed American soldiers on their way to Afghanistan and Iraq," said Awlaqi. Hasan, who is of Palestinian origin, was "defending his nation."

Awlaqi also defended Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound passenger plane with explosives last Christmas.

The operation "was very successful even though it did not even kill anyone," he said.

The administration of US President Barack Obama has decided to authorise the targeted killing of Awlaqi, a US-born cleric of Yemeni descent.

Yemen's defence ministry said in April that the authorities were tracking Awlaqi for his alleged links to Al-Qaeda and "terrorist activities."