DUBAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Yemen said on Sunday it had launched a manhunt for al Qaeda in its southern Shabwa province, the same day a U.S.-born Muslim cleric sought by Washington and thought to be hiding in that area appeared in an online video.
Late on Saturday, U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service SITE Institute released a video tape showing Anwar al-Awlaki sitting at a table in traditional Yemeni garb and delivering a religious lecture in Arabic.
Yemeni security forces and local tribes began combing the mountainous Said district in Shabwa for al Qaeda militants on Saturday morning, a security official in Shabwa told Reuters.
Members of Awlaki's own tribe were helping with the search, the official said.
The Shabwa governor and the Awlaki clan have signed a deal under which they would "expel al Qaeda elements from their territories and mount a joint operation with the army (to do so)," he added.
Southern Yemen has seen a rise in al Qaeda attacks in recent months, mostly small-scale bombings or shootings at police stations and security or intelligence buildings.
On Oct. 11, four people were killed after two bombs exploded at a sports stadium in Aden. The trial of 10 suspects in the attack began in Aden on Sunday, according to judicial sources in the southern port city.
SITE said the video featuring Awlaki, which was less than two minutes long, had been posted on an Islamist website used by militants. The footage appeared to be a fragment of a longer recording, the date of which was unclear.
Washington accuses Awlaki of being a leading al Qaeda figure with links to a failed bombing of a U.S.-bound plane in December 2009 and to an army major who went on a shooting spree that killed 13 people last year at Fort Hood in Texas.
The U.S. Treasury has blacklisted Awlaki as a "specially designated global terrorist", a move that freezes any assets he may have under U.S. jurisdiction.
Earlier this year, the United States authorised the CIA to capture or kill him.
Washington and neighbouring top oil exporter Saudi Arabia fear Yemen's resurgent al Qaeda wing may use the increasingly unstable country to launch attacks in the region and beyond. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Additional reporting and writing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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