Top al-Qaida bomb-maker killed
Baku, October 2 (AZERTAC). U.S. intelligence indicates that the top al-Qaida bomb-maker in Yemen also died in the drone strike that killed radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, two U.S. officials said.
Ibrahim al-Asiri is the bomb-maker linked to the bomb hidden in the underwear of a Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
The FBI pulled al-Asiri`s fingerprint off that bomb. Authorities also believe he built the bombs that al-Qaida slipped into printers and shipped to the U.S. last year in a nearly catastrophic attack.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because al-Asiri`s death has not officially been confirmed.
Al-Asiri`s death would make the attack perhaps the most successful single drone strike ever. Along with al-Awlaki, the attack also killed Samir Khan, the editor of the al-Qaida propaganda magazine Inspire.
Both Khan and al-Awlaki are U.S. citizens. Al-Awlaki was the target of the attack.
Christopher Boucek, a scholar who studies Yemen and al-Qaida, said al-Asiri was so important to the organisation that his death would `overshadow the news of al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.`
New York City police are on alert to possible revenge attacks following the U.S. killing of American-born militant Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, police commissioner Ray Kelly said on Friday.
Awlaki, identified by U.S. intelligence as `chief of external operations` for al Qaeda`s Yemen branch and a Web-savvy propagandist for the Islamist cause, was killed in a CIA drone attack in a remote Yemeni town, U.S. officials said.
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