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| US officials said Anwar al-Awlaki had played a significant role in attacks on US interests |
US-born radical Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a key al-Qaeda leader, has been killed in Yemen, the country's defence ministry said.
Unnamed US officials confirmed he had died in a US drone strike, but gave no further details.
Awlaki, of Yemeni descent, has been on the run in Yemen since December 2007.
The US named him a "global terrorist" and said he had played a "significant role" in plots to blow up US airliners and use poison to kill US citizens.
President Barack Obama is said to have personally ordered his killing.
Yemen's defence ministry statement said only that Awlaki had died in Khashef in Jawf province, about 140km (87 miles) east of the capital, Sanaa, "along with some of his companions".
US and Yemeni officials later named one of those as Samir Khan, also a US citizen but of Pakistani origin, who produced an online magazine promoting al-Qaeda's ideology.
The death was also announced on Yemeni TV.
Local tribal leaders told the AFP news agency that Awlaki had been moving around within Yemen in recent weeks to evade capture. Local people told AP he had been travelling between Jawf and Marib provinces when he died.
Unnamed US official said Awlaki's convoy was hit by a US drone and jet strike.
One senior official told ABC News it was "a great day for America".
He said Awlaki had been "very operational, every day he was plotting".
US intelligence had had "a very intense focus on him" for some time, he said, were waiting for him to be away from civilians so they could strike.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Awlaki had "demonstrated his intent and ability to cause mass terror" and that if confirmed, his death would be "another significant blow to al-Qaeda".
BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera says the killing, if confirmed, is significant, because Awlaki's use of modern media meant he was able to reach out and inspire people susceptible to radicalisation.
The reported death comes amid concerns in Washington about the impact of Yemen's political crisis on its ability to go after al-Qaeda militants.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh is facing a widespread protest movement, along with an armed insurrection by renegade army units and tribal fighters.
Mr Saleh, who was injured three months ago when his residence was shelled, returned last week after treatment in Saudi Arabia.
He said in an interview published on Thursday that he will not stand down, as promised in a deal brokered by Gulf States, if his opponents are allowed to stand in elections to succeed him.
Targeted before
Awlaki is described by US officials as the "chief of external operations" of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
He had played a "significant operational role in the Christmas 2009 Detroit airline bomb attempt, said officials, and in the plot which sent two bombs in printer cartridges on US-bound cargo planes in 2010. They were intercepted in the UK and Dubai.
Awalaki has been implicated in the 2009 US army base killings in Fort Hood, Texas, and a failed bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010.
Washington said he had sought to use poisons including cyanide and ricin in attacks.
When he was imam of a San Diego mosque in the 1990s, his sermons were attended by two future 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
He also lived in the UK from 2002-04, where he spent several months giving lectures to Muslim youth.
In a video posted in November last year he called for the killing of Americans, saying they were from the "party of devils".
Weeks later, he survived an air strike in Shabwa province in which at least 30 militants were killed.
He has been reported dead in the past following US air strikes on southern Yemen in December 2009 and November 2010. He was the target of a US drone attack that killed two al Qaeda operatives in southern Yemen on 5 May.
The official who spoke to ABC said there had been "a good opportunity to hit him" on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks this year, but that "it never materialised".
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