Radical Yemeni cleric Anwar Al-Awlaqi has praised a Christmas Day attempt to blow up a US airliner and said the man accused in the attack was his "student".
The militant religious leader, accused of links to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said he supported the attack, according to an interview published by Al-Jazeera.
He described alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who reportedly received training in Yemen, as his "student," but said that he did not direct the young Nigerian to launch the attack.
"I support what Umar Farouk did," he added, citing the deaths of Muslims in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as drone strikes in Yemen, to justify the foiled attack against a Northwest Airlines plane as it prepared to land in Detroit on Christmas Day.
"In my tribe, American missiles and raids killed 17 women and 23 children. So don't ask me if al-Qaeda has killed or blew up a civilian plane after all of that. Three hundreds Americans are nothing compared to the thousands of Muslims they killed."
Abdulmutallab has been charged with attempting to bring down the jet carrying 279 passengers and 11 crew by detonating explosives hidden in his underwear.
The explosive device failed to properly ignite and the 23-year-old was quickly overwhelmed by passengers and crew aboard the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda and based in Yemen, claimed responsibility for the attack shortly afterwards and al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden praised Abdulmutallab as a "hero."
Awlaqi shot to prominence last year after it emerged he had communicated extensively by email with Major Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist who opened fire on his colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13.
Awlaqi, who was born in the United States and is accused of having had ties to the September 11, 2001 hijackers, praised the Fort Hood attack and said Muslims like Hasan should only serve in the US military if they planned to carry out similar attacks.
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