Al-Awlaki, linked to suspects in both the Fort Hood shooting and failed Christmas Day bombing, has become a key terror target, with a top Congress member calling him “terrorist No. 1” and officials confirming he has been added to a list that would allow US operatives to capture or kill him.

A top US official confirmed that Al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based radical cleric, has become the first US citizen added to the CIA list. This means the White House authorized the targeted killing of an American citizen in what is believed to be an extremely rare, if not unprecedented move in the “war against terror.”

In targeting Al-Awlaki, the Obama administration renewed a Bush-era policy granting US forces authority to kill US citizens abroad if they’re linked to terrorism against the US or “US interests.”

The cleric has been at the top of the US intelligence radar screen for months. “He’s in everybody’s sights,” said a US official.

The decision to add Al-Awlaki to the CIA target list reflects the view among agency analysts that a man previously regarded mainly as a militant preacher has taken on an expanded role in Al-Qaeda’s offshoot.

American counterterrorism officials say Al-Awlaki is an operative of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He is also believed to actively recruit new members for the terror network, another reason why he was added to the capture-or-kill target list. Al-Awlaki is understood to have moved from encouraging attacks on the United States to participating in them directly. Last month he called for “jihad against America.” 

Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, called Al-Awlaki, “terrorist No. 1” at an intelligence conference on Tuesday. 

“He is very much in the sights of the Yemenis...,” said Harman, chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence.

“He ends up being a person that is not only an adviser to the Fort Hood shooter, was in the plot to have the Nigerian Christmas bomber blow up the plane over Detroit, but has literally in the past several weeks, and this has been in the press, called for attacks against the United States,” Harman said.

His sermons and recordings have been found on the computers of at least a dozen terror suspects in the United States and Britain. In addition, Al-Awlaki admits to having communication with US Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who has been charged in the shooting deaths of 13 people at Ford Hood, Texas, in November.

The cleric could be heard acknowledging a relationship with Hasan in a recently released audiotape obtained by the US government. In the tape, he mocked Obama and praised Abdulmutallab.

Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico of Yemeni descent. He was interviewed by the FBI after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when he was accused of serving as “spiritual adviser” to two of the attackers. He was detained by Yemeni authorities in August 2006 and held for more than a year as part of a secret investigation.

The move against him means that Al-Awlaki is considered a legitimate target not only for a military strike carried out by US and Yemeni forces, but also for lethal CIA operations.