[2] The raid in southern Yemen was conducted by the supersecret Joint Special Operations Command and was, according to a senior U.S. military official, intended to capture valuable intelligence, specifically computer equipment.

[5] Nawar al-Awlaki's death gained national coverage and attention in both mainstream and online media sources.

[6][7][8] Nawar's grandfather, Nasser al-Awlaki, said of her killing, "She was hit with a bullet in her neck and suffered for two hours.

Her father, Anwar al-Awlaki, was the first to be killed by the executive branch when on September 30, 2011, CIA orders calling for a precision drone strike targeting him[11] were given presidential approval by President Barack Obama.

Two weeks after the death of her father, Nawar's sixteen-year-old half-brother, Abdulrahman, was also killed in a U.S. drone strike.