Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been killed at the age of 40 by missiles fired from an American unmanned drone in Yemen, was an effective propagandist for radical Islam and a key figure in the dissemination of the message of al-Qaida and related groups. With his fluent English, grasp of contemporary western culture and ability to condense esoteric theological debates into simple arguments, the Yemeni-Ame
![Anwar al-Awlaki obituary](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/c88a570746e09e48977a862a289cefd48072caaf/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fi.guim.co.uk%2Fimg%2Fstatic%2Fsys-images%2FGuardian%2FPix%2Fpictures%2F2011%2F10%2F2%2F1317570748817%2FAnwar-al-Awlaki-004.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1200%26height%3D630%26quality%3D85%26auto%3Dformat%26fit%3Dcrop%26overlay-align%3Dbottom%252Cleft%26overlay-width%3D100p%26overlay-base64%3DL2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctYWdlLTIwMTEucG5n%26enable%3Dupscale%26s%3Dfc2db9bb24d94e842467f63a7a6e058c)