Yemeni forces searched yesterday for suspected al-Qaeda militants behind a plot to bomb Jewish targets in Chicago, uncovered by the interception in Britain and Dubai of parcels with explosives sent from Yemen.
US President Barack Obama addressed the nation on Friday, saying US authorities would spare no effort to find the source of the packages that he called a “credible terrorist threat” aimed at two places of Jewish worship.
One parcel intercepted in Dubai had a bomb hidden in a printer, which bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, said Dubai police, whose experts defused the device. British forensic experts were examining the other parcel yesterday.
“The parcel was prepared in a professional way where a closed electrical circuit was connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden inside the printer,” a Dubai police statement said.
The plot originating in Yemen will further heighten security concerns about the unstable Arab state, seen by the West as the home of al-Qaeda’s most inventive and audacious affiliate.
Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and one of its leading figures, US-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlak, have been priority US targets since it took responsibility for a failed plot to blow up a US jet on Christmas Day last year.
Dubai police said they found pentaerythritol trinitrate in a printer and cartridge, the same chemical explosive used in the bomb sewn into the underwear of a Nigerian man charged with the attempted Christmas attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the parcels, but US officials suspect AQAP, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda, whose militants killed 3,000 people using hijacked airliners in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US
The White House said Saudi Arabia had helped to identify the threat from Yemen, while Britain and the United Arab Emirates also provided information.
One of the packages was found on a United Parcel Service (UPS) cargo plane at East Midlands Airport, about 260km north of London. The other was discovered at a FedEx Corp facility in Dubai.
UPS and FedEx said they were halting shipments from Yemen. UPS planes were searched and then cleared in New Jersey and Philadelphia.
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