List of assassinations by the United States

This is a list of individuals who have been the targets of assassination by the United States. American authorities usually define these killings as 'targeted killings'.

Successful assassinations

Target	Position	Date	Location	Country	Nationality	Method	Notes
Isoroku Yamamoto	Gensui of the Imperial Japanese Navy, mastermind of the Attack on Pearl Harbor.	1943-04-18	Bougainville Island	Australian New Guinea	Japan	Plane shot down.	Part of Operation Vengeance.[1]
Viet Cong operatives	Various.	1966-1972	Various	South Vietnam	North Vietnam	Various.	Part of Phoenix Program.[1]
Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi	Participant in the USS Cole bombing.	2002-11-03	Sanaa	Yemen	Yemen	Drone strike.
Haitham al-Yemeni	Explosive expert for Al-Qaeda.	2005-05-08	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Yemen	Drone strike.
Abu Hamza Rabia	Third highest Al-Qaeda leader.	2005-12-01	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Egypt	Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi	Leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.	2006-06-07	Baqubah	Iraq	Jordan	Air strike.
Abu Laith al-Libi	Senior commander of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.	2008-01-29	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Libya	Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Khabab al-Masri	Head of Al-Qaeda chemical weapons programme.	2008-07-28	South Waziristan	Pakistan	Egypt	Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Wafa al Saudi	Involved in Al-Qaeda logistics.	2008-09-04				Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Haris	Al-Qaeda commander.	2008-09-08				Drone strike.	[2]
Khalid Habib	Senior member of Al-Qaeda.	2008-10-16	near Taparghai	Pakistan	Egypt	Drone strike.	[2]
Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim	Head of Al-Qaeda propaganda.	2008-10-31	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Egypt	Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Zubair al-Masri	Explosives expert for Al-Qaeda.	2008-11-22	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Egypt	Drone strike.	[2]
Rashid Rauf	Senior member of Al-Qaeda.	2008-11-22	North Waziristan	Pakistan	United Kingdom	Drone strike.	[2]
Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam	One of the perpetrators of the 1998 United States embassy bombings.	2009-01-01		Pakistan	Kenya	Drone strike.	[2]
Baitullah Mehsud	Leader of Tehrik-i-Taliban.	2009-08-05	South Waziristan	Pakistan	Pakistan	Drone strike.	[2]
Tohir Yoʻldosh	Leader of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.	2009-08-27	Zhob	Pakistan	Uzbekistan	Drone strike.	[2]
Najmiddin Jalolov	Leader of Islamic Jihad Union.	2009-09-14		Pakistan	Uzbekistan	Drone strike.	[2]
Saleh al-Somali	Senior member of Al-Qaeda.	2009-12-08	Federally Administered Tribal Areas	Pakistan	Somalia	Drone strike.	[2]
Abdullah Said al Libi	Senior member of Al-Qaeda.	2009-12-17	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Libya	Drone strike.	[2]
Sa'ad bin Laden	One of Osama bin Laden's sons.[3]	2009		Pakistan	Saudi Arabia	Drone strike.
Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali	Participant in the 1998 United States embassy bombings.	2010		Pakistan	Egypt	Drone strike.
Abdul Haq al-Turkestani	Leader of Turkistan Islamic Party.	2010-02-15			China	Drone strike.	[2]
Qari Mohammad Zarif	Leader of Fada'iyan-e Islam.	2010-02-24				Drone strike.	[2]
Saeed al-Masri	Head of Al-Qaeda finances.	2010-05-21	Boya, North Waziristan	Pakistan	Egypt	Drone strike.	[2]
Hamza al-Jufi	Leader of Jundallah.	2010-06-29				Drone strike.	[2]
Sheikh al-Fatah	Leader of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.	2010-09-25				Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Ibrahim	Leader of Fursan-i-Mohammed.	2010-10-06				Drone strike.	[2]
Sheik Fateh al Masri	Top commander of the Lashkar al Zil.[3]	2010-12				Drone strike.
Abu Zaid al-Iraqi	Head of Al-Qaeda finances in Pakistan.	2011-02-20				Drone strike.	[2]
Osama bin Laden	Leader of Al-Qaeda, mastermind of the September 11 attacks.	2011-05-02	Bilal Town, Abbottabad	Pakistan	Saudi Arabia	United States Navy SEALs raid.
Ilyas Kashmiri	Senior member of Al-Qaeda.	2011-06-03	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Pakistan	Drone strike.	[2]
Atiyah Abd al-Rahman	Osama bin Laden's Chief of Staff.	2011-08-22	North Waziristan	Pakistan	Libya	Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Hafs al-Shahri	Al-Qaeda commander.	2011-09-11				Drone strike.	[2]
Anwar al-Awlaki	Member of Al-Qaeda.	2011-09-30	Al Jawf	Yemen	United States	Drone strike.	US citizen.
Abu Miqdad al Masri	Member of Al-Qaeda.	2011-10-14				Drone strike.	[2]
Aslam Awan	Deputy leader of external operations for Al-Qaeda.	2012-01-10				Drone strike.	[2]
Bader Mansoor	Leader of an Al-Qaeda affiliate.	2012-02-09				Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Yahya al-Libi	Senior member of Al-Qaeda.	2012-06-04	Mir Ali	Pakistan	Libya	Drone strike.	[2]
Usman Adil	Leader of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.	2012-04-29				Drone strike.	[2]
Abdul Shakoor al-Turkistani	Turkistan Islamic Party.	2012-08-24	North Waziristan	Pakistan	China	Drone strike.	[2]
Yaseen al Somali	Deputy Commander for Al-Qaeda training.	2013-01-08				Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Ubaydah Abdullah al-Adam	Commander for Al-Qaeda intelligence.	2013-04-14				Drone strike.	[2]
Abu Saif al Jaziri	Senior commander for training of Al-Qaeda.	2013-07-03				Drone strike.	[2]
Ahmed Abdi Godane	Leader of Al-Shabaab.[3]	2014-09-01	Hawaay	Somalia	Somalia	Drone strike.
Sheikh Imran Ali Siddi	Leader of Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent.	2014-10-11				Drone strike.	[2]
Umar Farooq	Commander of Al-Qaeda.	2014-12-07				Drone strike.	[2]
Adam Yahiye Gadahn	Al-Qaeda spokesperson and media advisor.	2015-01-19	Waziristan	Pakistan	United States	Drone strike.	[2]
Adan Garar	Suspected of a role in the Westgate Mall attack.[3]	2015-03				Drone strike.
Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad Arbaysh	Senior member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.	2015-04-12	Hadhramaut	Yemen	Saudi Arabia	Drone strike.
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi	Senior member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.	2015-05-07	Mukalla	Yemen	Yemen	Drone strike.
Hamza bin Laden	Son of Osama bin Laden.	2017-2019		Afghanistan	Saudi Arabia		Details remain scarce.[4]
Qasem Soleimani	Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.	2020-01-03	Baghdad	Iraq	Iran	Drone strike.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis	Deputy Chairman of the Popular Mobilization Forces.	2020-01-03	Baghdad	Iraq	Iraq	Drone strike.
Qasim al-Raymi	Leader of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.	2020-02-07	Wald Rabi' District, Al Bayda Governorate	Yemen	Yemen	Airstrike.	[5][6]

Failed attempts

Target	Position	Date	Location	Country	Nationality	Method	Notes
Muammar Gaddafi	Leader of Libya.	15 April 1986	Bab al-Azizia	Libya	Libyan	Air strike.	Part of the 1986 United States bombing of Libya.[1]
Saddam Hussein	Leader of Iraq.	2003-03-19	Dora Farm Complex, Dora, Baghdad	Iraq	Iraq	Air strike	The George W. Bush Presidency authorized the US military to make "decapitation" attempts, prior to the invasion of Iraq.[7]
Ahmad Shah (Taliban)	Leader of an anti-coalition militia (ACM)	June 27, 2005	Sawtalo Sar	Afghanistan	Afghanistan	SEAL Team and US Marines	Part of Operation Red Wings, Resulted in the death of 19 US soldiers including a 4 man SEAL recon team.

Planned but unexecuted assassinations

Target	Position	Nationality	Method	Notes
Fidel Castro	Leader of Cuba.	Cuba		Reported by the Church Committee.[1]
Patrice Lumumba	Leader of Democratic Republic of the Congo.	Democratic Republic of the Congo		Reported by the Church Committee.[1]
Rafael Trujillo	Leader of the Dominican Republic.	Dominican Republic		Reported by the Church Committee.[1]
Ngo Dinh Diem	Leader of South Vietnam.	South Vietnam		Reported by the Church Committee.[1]
René Schneider	Chilean general.	Chile		Reported by the Church Committee.[1]

See also

• Drone strike
• Assassination and targeted killing by the CIA
• List of assassinations
• List of Israeli assassinations
• List of Iranian assassinations
• List of Soviet and Russian assassinations
• United States involvement in regime change
• Criticism of United States foreign policy
• Operation Condor

References

1. Herbert, Jr, Riger G. (1992). Bullets with names: The deadly dilemma (PDF). Monterey, California: USN Naval Postgraduate School.
2. "The Disposition Matrix". 2015-04-25. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
3. "Prominent terrorist suspects killed in drone strikes". USA Today. 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2020-01-08. December 2009: Abdullah Said al Libi, top commander of the Lashkar al Zil, al-Qaeda's shadow army. Killed in Pakistan.
4. Sarah Westwood; Evan Perez; Ryan Browne. "Trump confirms Osama bin Laden's son Hamza killed in US counterterrorism operation". CNN. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
5. "Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen killed by US strike". BBC News. 2020-02-07. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
6. https://al-masdaronline.net/national/301
7. "operation iraqi freedom: A chronology of the six-week invasion of Iraq, drawn from the FRONTLINE documentary". PBS Frontline. Stealth bombs and cruise missiles hit the target in the grounds of the Dora Farm complex where Saddam's daughters live. But the intelligence tip is inaccurate -- Saddam is not there.