Warning over Al Qaeda as new underwear bomb plot foiled
THE US government today warned that Al Qaeda was creating “more and more perverse” ways to commit terrorist atrocities.
The warning came just hours after it was revealed that a plot to blow up a US-bound jet with explosives hidden in a bomber’s underwear had been foiled.
Officials described the device as a sophisticated upgrade to a similar one that failed to explode on a plane to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009.
They added that the unexploded bomb was discovered as part of a covert CIA operation in Yemen.
And the action by US forces is thought to have thwarted a potential suicide mission around the anniversary of the killing of former Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
It is not thought that the would-be suicide bomber had yet picked a target or purchased plane tickets when the CIA struck.
Following the successful operation, bomb experts are now trying to work out whether the device could have slipped past airport security.
These terrorists keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people.
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The device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it is not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.
According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the foiled plot was a reminder of the threat posed by terrorists intent on committing mass murder.
"The device did not appear to pose a threat to the public air service, but the plot itself indicates that these terrorists keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people. And it's a reminder of how we have to keep vigilant," she said.