Officials: Top al-Qaida bomb maker killed in U.S. drone strike

CAIRO — Al- Qaida’s chief bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, who was behind the 2009 Christmas Day plot to down an airliner over Detroit and other foiled aviation-related terror attacks, was killed in a U.S. drone strike, Yemeni officials and a tribal leader said Friday.

The killing of al-Asiri deals a heavy blow to the group’s capabilities in strik- ing western targets and piles pressure on the group that already lost some of its top cadres over the past years in similar drone strikes.

The tribal leader said al-Asiri was struck, along with two or four of his associates, as he stood beside his car. He added that al-Asiri’s wife, who hails from the well-known alAwaleq tribe in the southern governorate of Shabwa, was briefly held months ago by the UAE-backed forces and later released.

Al-Qaida has remained silent about its top bomb maker. Instead of the typical “eulogies” on militant websites, the Yemeni source said the group is trying to hunt down suspected “spies” who might have tipped off the U.S. on his whereabouts leading up to the strike.

The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief Al-Asiri reporters. The tribal leader and al-Qaida-linked source requested anonymity fearing for their safety.

The confirmation of al-Asiri’s death follows a U.N. report this week saying that the 36-year- old Saudi national, who is among U.S.’s top most wanted militants, may have been killed in the second half of 2017.

Al-Asiri is believed to have built the underwear bomb that a Nigerian man tried to detonate on a passenger jet over Detroit in December 2009. He is also behind bombs hidden in printer cartridges placed on U.S.-bound cargo jets in 2010.

U.S. intelligence over the past years believed that alAsiri and his confederates were constantly working to improve their bomb designs so they could get past airport security.

In July 2014, the Transportation Security Adminis- tration banned uncharged mobile phones and laptops from flights to the United States that originated from Europe and the Middle East.

Al-Asiri, who studied chemistry in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, once placed explosives inside his younger brother’s clothes in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s interior minister, Mohammed bin Nayef, in 2009. The brother, Abdullah, died in the explosion while the top U.S. counterterrorism ally was slightly wounded.