Creator of underwear bomb thought to have been killed in Yemen resurfaces
April 30, 2012 by supermario
Filed under World
cbsnews.com
CBS/AP) WASHINGTON – When a drone strike killed one of the leaders of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen last year, U.S. intelligence officials thought they also had wiped out the terrorist group’s top bomb maker. Soon it became apparent that Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the brains behind sophisticated bombs that have been used in attempts to attack the U.S., was still alive. A hunted al-Asiri went underground, knowing the U.S. was after him, particularly after the U.S. killed Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the Yemen group’s top leaders.
-
But U.S. counterterrorism officials say he has resurfaced. They worry he might be at work doing what he does best: building bombs that could defeat airline security, The Associated Press has learned.
-
On “CBS This Morning” John Miller called Asiri “one of the most creative bomb makers . . . one of the most dangerous people that we have seen.”
-
Asiri invented the “Underwear Bomb” brought on board a Christmas 2009 flight headed for Detroit which – had the detonation attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab been successful – could have killed hundreds of people. Asiri was also behind bombs placed insider printers shipped from Yemen via air freight that were intercepted in 2010.
