Under pressure from U.S. and British officials, YouTube removed from its site Wednesday some of the hundreds of videos featuring calls to jihad by Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born, Yemen-based cleric who has played an increasingly public role in inspiring violence directed at the West.

Last week, a British official pressed for the videos to be removed and a New York congressman, Anthony Weiner, sent YouTube a letter listing hundreds of videos featuring the cleric.

In an e-mail, Victoria Grand, a YouTube spokeswoman, said that the site had removed videos that violated the site’s guidelines.