SANAA, Yemen — The death of U.S.-born Muslim preacher Anwar al Awlaki in a barrage of missiles fired by U.S. drones over Yemen on Friday dealt a sharp blow to Al Qaida's recruiting efforts, but it's likely to do little to crimp the group's ability to carry out attacks.

President Barack Obama, who authorized the killing of the American-born Awlaki last year, hailed his death as "another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al Qaida and its affiliates.

"This is further proof that al Qaida and its affiliates will find no safe haven anywhere in the world," Obama said, labeling Awlaki a "leader of external operations" for al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which he called the terrorist group's "most active operational affiliate."

Awlaki's ability to advocate violent jihad in plain English and his use of the Internet and social media such as Facebook and YouTube to disseminate his sermons made him an exceptional recruiter for violent jihad, especially among young, English-speaking Muslims.

"There are a range of (radical Islamists) trying to preach on the Internet, but few people were able to generate the following that he did," said Seth Jones, an expert with the RAND Corp., a policy institute, who's writing a history of al Qaida. He called Awlaki "extremely effective as a propagandist."

Others noted, however, that Awlaki wasn't among the top military commanders of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and that the group's top leader, Nasir al Wihayshi, a former aide to the late Osama bin Laden, its military commander, Qasim al Raymi, and its chief bomb-maker, Abdullah al Asiri, remain alive.

"In terms of the operations of AQAP, this will not have a debilitating affect; there are plenty of other AQAP figures that present a much greater threat," said Gregory Johnsen, a Princeton University Yemen analyst.

Word of Awlaki's death received little attention in Yemen, where he wasn't well-known. The country is enmeshed in a months-long political crisis over the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In Egypt, where bin Laden's death in May sparked marches on the U.S. Embassy by Muslim fundamentalists, there was no reaction to Awlaki's killing.

Some congressional Republicans congratulated Obama on the killing. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called Awlaki's death a "serious blow to radical Islam and long-overdue justice." Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the killing "is a tremendous tribute to President Obama and the men and women of our intelligence community."

But Republican presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas questioned the propriety of the death, warning that Americans shouldn't take lightly the execution of a U.S. citizen who hadn't been convicted of a crime. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which had challenged in federal court Obama's right to target Awlaki, called his death an assassination and the "latest of many affronts to domestic and international law."

Awlaki was killed as he was traveling between northern provinces. A senior administration official in Washington, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity as a matter of policy, described the operation that took out Awlaki as a CIA-led drone attack, but Yemeni government officials described American involvement as "joint intelligence cooperation."

A second American, Samir Khan, the editor of the English-language Al Qaida magazine Inspire, also died in the attack. Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in New York, moved to North Carolina with his family in 2004. He was known for a militant blog while he was a student at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte.