Less than a week after Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Pakistan, U.S. drones tried to killed radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, according to U.S. officials, ABC News reports.

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Officials say the missile strike did not succeed in killing Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who has become a leading voice of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemeni affiliate of al Qaeda.

Yemeni officials said two al Qaeda operatives were killed in the Thursday strike in a remote area of Yemen.

The attempt to kill Awlaki was the first acknowledged U.S military strike inside Yemen in a year. In May 2010, missiles killed an envoy of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh by mistake. Unlike previous strikes in Yemen that have involved Tomahawk cruise missile launched by Navy ships, Thursday's strike involved a predator drone. Until now, drones flying over Yemen had been unarmed.