Sanaa, Sep 30 (IANS) US-born Yemeni Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in an air raid in the southeast of the country, said Yemen's Defence Ministry Friday, Xinhua reported.


The claim, however, has been denied by one of his brothers.

Yemen's Defence Ministry, in a brief text message to journalists, quoted a security official as saying that the prominent leader of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda wing was killed along with a number of his supporters in Yemen's southeastern Shabwa province.

Anwar al-Awlaki was wanted by the US government for his links to the attempted bombing of an airliner bound for the US and his involvement in planning attacks against the country.

Tribal sources confirmed that "a US unmanned drone fired a missile on two cars in Masila area, located between the northeastern restive provinces of Marib and al-Jouf, killing all onboard", the report said.

"No confirmed information that the wanted Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki was in the convoy," said a tribal official from Shabwa province, the ancestral homeland of al-Awlaki.

A security official said that the US air raid was done based on intelligence tip-off from "the regional Saudi intelligence office in Yemen".

Meanwhile, Ahmed al-Awlaki, one of Anwar al-Awlaki's brothers who is wanted by the Yemeni authorities for hiding Anwar, claimed over phone that "Anwar is alive and was not in the targeted convoy hit by the US unmanned warplane early Friday".

Al-Awlaki, who reportedly escaped a number of US air raids, had been pronounced killed by Yemeni troops late last year. But the Yemeni government later admitted he was still alive.

Anwar al-Awlaki was put on the US "capture or kill" list last year for alleged linking to a botched attempt to blow up a US-bound plane in December 2009, for which Al-Qaeda in Yemen later claimed responsibility.