n a letter to Congressional leaders on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged that the US government had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen, The New York Times reported.
“The decision to target Anwar al-Awlaki was lawful, it was considered, and it was just,” Holder wrote, claiming that Anwar al-Awlaki was the inspiration for several plots against the United States.
The letter also said that the US had killed three other US citizens: Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike; Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman, who was also killed in Yemen in October 2011; and Jude Kenan Mohammad, who was reportedly killed in November of the same year in a strike in Pakistan.
Holder said the letter, directed by US President Barack Obama, comes in response to congressional inquiries about the "administration’s use of lethal force against US citizens.''
The disclosure to Congress comes a day before the US president is scheduled to deliver an address on the use of drones.
The Obama administration refuses to publicly discuss any details of the covert program and the death toll from drone strikes remains a mystery.
In February, a number of US lawmakers expressed concern about Obama's use of assassination drones to kill US citizens overseas and the secrecy in legal justifications for the targeted killings.
"The same president who opposes the detention of foreign terrorists, who opposes the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on foreign terrorists, and who attempted to bring foreign terrorists to trial in New York City is now personally approving the killing of Americans," House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte said.
The lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee also criticized Obama's secrecy in laying out legal justifications for the attacks.
"To date, the administration has not even acknowledged that this program exists, let alone provided this committee with the information it requires to examine the legality of the program," said Representative John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan.
Washington uses assassination drones in several countries, claiming that they target “terrorists”. According to witnesses, however, the attacks have mostly led to massive civilian casualties.