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Al-Qaeda claims parcel bomb plot
 [Al Jazeera] Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has said that it orchestrated a failed bomb plot on airliners headed for the US last month, and grabbed credit for the crash of an aircraft in Dubai in September.The claims were made in a statement published by the Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing on Islamist websites and subsequently translated by the SITE Intelligence Group on Friday. SITE said that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) called for more explosive parcels to "enlarge the circle of its application to include civilian aircraft in the West as well as cargo aircraft". Two bomb attempts in October were foiled by security services in the UK and Dubai, where parcels containing the explosives were in transit, having originating from Yemen. September crash AQAP also said that it was behind an incident on September 9 when an aircraft belonging to UPS, the US delivery firm, crashed near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The group claimed it had planted a bomb on the airliner, but that the authorities had kept the cause of the crash quiet. "We downed the plane belonging to the American UPS company, but because the media of the enemy did not attribute responsibility for this work to us we kept quiet about the operation until the time came that we hit again," it said. Governments around the world have tightened security surrounding freight coming from Yemen after the two parcel bombs, addressed to synagogues in Chicago, were discovered at a UK airport and in a cargo terminal in Dubai. Qatar Airways said the Dubai parcel had been transported on two of its passenger planes from Sanaa via Doha. The incident prompted Britain to ban unaccompanied cargo freight to the UK from Yemen and Somalia. The Netherlands and Canada suspended all cargo flights from Yemen, and France and the US also banned air freight from Yemen in response to the plot. 'Mass punishment' Germany extended its ban on cargo aircraft from Yemen to include passenger flights, sparking shock from Yemen which described the decision as a "mass punishment". Earlier, US authorities said that they knew al-Qaeda had planned to use international cargo systems several weeks before last week's foiled plot. At least one of the bombs was hidden inside a computer printer with a circuit board and mobile phone SIM card attached. The bomb was said to contain pentaerythritol trinitrate (PETN), a highly potent explosive which is difficult to detect in security screenings. A leading al-Qaeda fighter in Yemen who surrendered to Soddy Arabia last month provided the tip that led to the thwarting of the mail bomb plot, according to Yemeni security officials. The officials said Jabir al-Fayfi, a Saudi who had joined al-Qaeda in Yemen, had told Saudi officials about the plan. Posted by: Fred 2010-11-06 |
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