A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to halt Washington's alleged programme to capture or kill Americans who join militant groups abroad.
The judge threw out the lawsuit by civil liberties organisations on jurisdictional grounds.
The organisations want to halt the alleged programme and reveal the criteria the US government set for targeting someone.
Washington has not confirmed officially that such a programme exists.
The civil liberties groups had filed the lawsuit on behalf of the father of radical US-born Yemeni Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who contacted the groups when his son appeared on a CIA 'capture or kill' list in the summer.
Mr Awlaki, who is thought to be a senior operative for al-Qaeda in Yemen, has been linked to a deadly shooting in Fort Hood army base in Texas and an attempted bombing of a US airliner on 25 December 2009. BBC News
