Yemen: Nobody warned us over bomber

Yemen today said it let the Christmas Day airline bomber into the country twice because no-one warned them he was a security threat.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly received his training in the use of explosives sewn into his clothes on one of his visits to Yemen.

He lived there for two different periods, a year from 2004-2005 and from August-December this year, a government official said today.

Information Minister Hassan al-Lozy said the Yemeni embassy in Washington was now tightening controls on visas for students.

He said America had not provided Yemen with any information about Abdulmutallab that would warrant putting him on a watch list.

“We didn’t get any notice from the Americans to put this man on a list,” he said.

“America should have told Yemen about this man as they have of others.”

Yemen’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday Abdulmutallab was granted a Yemeni visa after authorities were reassured that he had “several visas from a number of friendly countries.”

It noted that Abdulmutallab had a valid visa to the United States, which he had visited in the past.

The San’a Institute for the Arabic Language said Abdulmutallab was an Arabic student at the school in August this year.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attempted attack on the airliner and said it was retaliation for a US operation against the group in Yemen.