A Somali terror suspect detained in the United States has links to Anwar al-Awlaqi, a key leader of Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, a US official said Thursday.

Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, who was captured in the Gulf by the US military on April 19 and is now facing terror charges, "was a key interlocutor" between Somalia's Shebab Islamist insurgency and Awlaqi's Al-Qaeda outfit in Yemen, the official told AFP.

"He was a senior commander" in Shebab, the official added.

The Somali national was indicted on Tuesday in a New York court on charges of providing material support to both Shebab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, (AQAP).

Awlaqi, an American citizen who remains at large in Yemen, is suspected of being a powerful leader of AQAP and of instigating a string of attacks against the United States.

The Saudi and Yemeni Al-Qaeda branches merged in January 2009 to form the Yemen-based AQAP.