U.S. intelligence: Al Qaida plotting attacks on U.S. civilian jetliners

WASHINGTON — Al Qaida’s network in Yemen is planning to conduct bombing attacks on American civilian aircraft.

Ibrahim Hassan Al Asiri. /Saudi Interior Ministry/Landov

Officials said the intelligence community has traced a plot by Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to blow up a commercial airliner or cargo plane.

They identified the AQAP planner as Ibrahim Hassan Al Asiri, believed to have taken over the Al Qaida network in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in wake of the U.S. assassination of Said Al Shihri, deemed the deputy commander of the insurgency movement.

“There is intelligence that he has unfortunately trained others and there’s a lot of effort to identify those folks,” U.S. Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole said.

World Tribune