US identify key suspect in Yemen bomb plot

HE is suspected of packing explosives into the underwear of a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner last Christmas and sent his own brother on a suicide mission against a top Saudi official.

Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, considered a key figure in al-Qaida’s most active franchise, is now the chief suspect behind the mail bombs sent from Yemen and bound for the United States, according to US intelligence officials.

Together with a US-born preacher, Yemeni militants, and former Saudi inmates of Guantanamo, al-Asiri makes up the leadership of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.