Armed US air marshals travelled on flights from Britain to America last week amid fears of attacks using 'underpants' bombs following the discovery of a new sophisticated device in the Middle East.
Armed US air marshals travelled on flights from Britain to America last week amid fears of attacks using "underpants" bombs following the discovery of a new sophisticated device in the Middle East.
American counter-terrorism officials sent the undercover officers to Europe insisting on the extra cover, it has emerged in the week that marked the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death.
Days earlier a double agent inside al-Qaeda smuggled one of the hi-tech bombs, which are designed to evade metal detectors and be hidden in underwear, into the hands of Western intelligence agencies.
The agent took the device "safely out of Yemen" where it was built by al-Qaeda's master bomb-maker. The putative bomber travelled to Saudi Arabia, whose intelligence services have previously infiltrated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), which is based in Yemen.
Explosives experts say it is more sophisticated than the bomb that almost brought down a transatlantic airliner to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. It is unclear whether the individual was intended to be the suicide bomber or a courier, but officials said no target had been chosen and no plane tickets bought.
There are fears that the bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, has built other devices, including ones that can be surgically implanted, and may have passed on his skills to others.
John Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism adviser, told ABC News that he could not rule out that other bombers are still at large. Every flight from Gatwick was carrying armed officers, according to one report.
The Department for Transport refused to comment last night (Tuesday). Around 1,000 US air marshals operate in teams of two or three and undergo intense firearms training to allow them to open fire on a crowded aircraft.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said the latest plot indicated that terrorists "keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people".
The Saudis have previously cracked a plot by al-Asiri to blow up airliners, including one travelling through Leicestershire, using devices disguised as desk-top printers.
The latest underpants device was handed over two weeks ago and President Barack Obama was informed as the CIA then targeted those who gave it to the courier.
On Sunday, a senior planner with AQAP called Fahd al-Quso was hit by a missile fired from an unmanned drone as he stepped out of his vehicle in Rafd, a mountain valley in the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa.
Quso, 37, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, was indicted in the US for his role in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors. He was also one of the most senior al-Qaeda leaders to meet Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit underpants bomber, in Yemen before he left the country to launch his attack.
Al-Asiri is one of the most wanted terrorist leaders in the world. The son of a former officer in the Saudi armed forces, he has been described by US intelligence officials as the most "ruthless and fanatical of all al-Qaeda's followers".
He recruited his brother, Abdullah, to join al-Qaeda, and in one of his most chilling attacks, sent him back to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with Muhammad bin Nayef, the security minister.
Abdullah blew himself up using a prototype underpants bomb, but left the minister with only minor injuries.
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