Kamal Derwish

Kamal Derwish (Arabic: كمال درويش ‎; 1973 – November 3, 2002) was an American citizen killed by the CIA as part of a covert targeted killing mission in Yemen on November 3, 2002. The CIA used an RQ-1 Predator drone to shoot a Hellfire missile, destroying the vehicle in which he was driving with five others.

On November 3, 2002, Derwish and al-Harithi were part of a convoy of vehicles moving through the Yemeni desert trying to meet someone, unaware that their contact was cooperating with US forces to lure them into a trap. As their driver spoke on satellite phone, trying to figure out why the two parties couldn't see each other if they were both at the rendezvous point, a Predator drone launched a Hellfire missile, killing everybody in the vehicle. CIA officers in Djibouti had received clearance for the attack from director George Tenet.

Derwish returned home to Lackawanna in 2000, and moved in with his uncle until Yahya Goba offered to share an apartment with him. He was visibly upset with the "decline" of the Buffalo suburb, noting how much the standard of living had fallen since his earlier days in the Ward.

Derwish was born at Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo, grew up in and according to some sources continued to live "on and off" in the suburb of Lackawanna. According to PBS Frontline Derwish left with his family to return to Yemen when he was five years old, and that after his father was killed in a car accident, Derwish went to live with relatives in Saudi Arabia where he was raised and educated. According to U.S. intelligence sources the Saudi government deported Derwish in 1997 for alleged extremist activities. After a year in Yemen he returned to his hometown of Lackawanna in 1998.