Section 3 ( a ) of the United States Torture Victim Protection Act contains a definition of extrajudicial killing : The legality of killings such as in the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011 have been brought into question . In that case , the US defended itself claiming the killing was not an assassination but an act of " National Self Defense " . There had been just under 2,500 assassinations by targeted drone strike by 2015 , and these too have questioned as being extrajudicial killings . Concerns about targeted and sanctioned killings of non-Americans and American citizens in overseas counter-terrorism activities have been raised by lawyers , news firms and private citizens . On September 30 , 2011 a drone strike in Yemen killed American citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan . Both individuals resided in Yemen at the time of their deaths . The executive order approving Al-Awlaki 's death was issued by Barack Obama in 2010 , was and challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights in that year . The U.S. president issued an order , approved by the National Security Council , that Al-Awlaki 's normal legal rights as a civilian should be suspended and his death should be imposed , as he was a threat to the United States . The reasons provided to the public for approval of the order were Al-Awlaki 's links to the 2009 Fort Hood Massacre and the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot , the attempted destruction of a Detroit-bound passenger-plane . The following month , al-Awlaki 's son was killed by mistake by another US drone strike
Fort Hood Massacre
2009 Fort Hood shooting
Extrajudicial killing