Al Qaeda’s master bomb maker may be dead: UN report

UNITED NATIONS: The Al Qaeda’s master bomb maker who was responsible for planning to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day may have been killed, according to a UN report.

The UN report said that Ibrahim Al Asiri, long regarded as one of the most dangerous terrorist operatives in circulation, may have been killed in Yemen last year, CNN reported.

“Since mid-2017, the organisation has suffered losses of leadership and ield commanders owing to extensive Yemeni and international counterterrorist operations,” said the report by the UN’S Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.

“Some member states report that explosives expert Ibrahim Al Asiri... may have been killed during the second half of 2017. Given Asiri’s past role in plots against aviation, this would represent a serious blow to operational capability.”

The UN report gave no indication of how Asiri died or who may have been responsible and is the only public indication of his possible death.

But multiple US oficials told CNN that they were weighing evidence that Asiri is dead.

Counter-terrorism analysts have said that there should be signiicant scepticism over Asiri’s possible demise for one major reason: his group Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has not released any statement acknowledging his death, nor a eulogy celebrating his martyrdom.

Aimen Dean, a former spy for British intelligence inside Al Qaeda, told CNN that until such a eulogy is released, Asiri should be assumed to be alive.

“It would be extremely out of the ordinary for them not do this for a senior leader like Asiri, especially because his group in Yemen are putting out all sorts of statements all the time,” Dean said.