A Yemeni judge has ordered the country's security forces to arrest a radical U.S.-born cleric linked to al-Qaeda after a foiled bomb plot involving Chicago-bound parcels.

Judge Mohsen Allwan told police to deliver Anwar al-Awlaki dead or alive. The order comes as Yemen faces heavy U.S. pressure to crack down on the country's al-Qaeda offshoot after a mail-bomb scheme that was thwarted a week ago.

The order to arrest al-Awlaki comes after two explosives-laden packages sent from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago, Ill., were intercepted in England and the United Arab Emirates on Oct. 29.

The United States has already authorized the CIA to capture or kill al-Awlaki, who is accused of helping a young Nigerian man arrested in the failed bombing of a Detroit-bound plane last December.

Al-Awlaki is also accused of using YouTube to incite violence through calls to jihad.

He is said to be hiding in the mountains of Yemen with his family and friends. The Yemeni government charged him in absentia earlier in the week with attempting to kill foreigners and being a member of al-Qaeda.

With files from The Associated Press