US contacts family of al-Qaida leader Awlakis friend

The call came Thursday, nearly a week after 25-year-old Samir Khan was killed along with cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Both men were American citizens.Khan wrote a radical blog while living in Charlotte, North Carolina, then left to join al-Qaida and produce its English-language online magazine. US officials said al-Awlaki was the target of the drone attack.A State Department official called Khans father, Zafar, a day after the family released a statement condemning Khans extra-judicial assassination, family spokesman Jibril Hough said.The familys statement said they were appalled by the indifference shown to us by our government.They said they wanted the government to explain why Khan was not afforded due process and to discuss collecting his remains.State Department spokesman Harry Edwards confirmed the call to Khans family but declined to offer details citing privacy issues.They were very apologetic (for not calling the family sooner) and offered condolences, Jibril Hough said. Hough said the conversation lasted a few minutes.It wasnt just Im sorry and hang-up, Hough said. The phone call included no discussion of the status or condition of Khans remains, he said.Khan, a Saudi-born man of Pakistani heritage, moved to Yemen in 2009 to allegedly join al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He and his family came to the US when he was 7. They lived in New York before moving to Charlotte in 2004.US Rep. Peter King said Friday that Khan came to the attention of federal authorities between 2007 and 2009 when he was seen meeting with two terror suspects on New Yorks Long Island. Khan had lived on Long Island before his family moved to North Carolina in 2004.