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Woman in Yemen arrested in bomb plot

Bomb-mailing probe seeks suspects tied to al-Qaeda; bomber in failed Dec. attack is eyed.

This computer printer and other items were in a package found on a cargo plane from Yemen, according to the Dubai police.
This computer printer and other items were in a package found on a cargo plane from Yemen, according to the Dubai police.Read moreEmirates News Agency, Associated Press

SAN'A, Yemen - Yemeni police have arrested a woman on suspicion of mailing a pair of bombs powerful enough to take down airplanes, officials said Saturday as details emerged about a terrorist plot aimed at the United States that exploited security gaps in the worldwide shipping system.

Investigators were hunting Yemen for more suspects tied to al-Qaeda, and several U.S. officials identified the terrorist group's top explosives expert in Yemen as the most likely bombmaker.

The explosives, addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, were pulled off airplanes in England and the United Arab Emirates early Friday, touching off a tense search for other devices.

It still was unclear whether the bombs, which officials said were wired to cell phones, timers, and power supplies, could have been detonated remotely while the planes were in the air, or when the packages were halfway around the world in the United States. But the fact that they made it onto airplanes showed that nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks, terrorists continue to probe and find security vulnerabilities.

The packages were addressed to two synagogues in the Chicago area. But British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that he believed the explosive device found at the East Midlands Airport in central England was intended to detonate aboard the plane.

British Home Secretary Theresa May added that the bomb was powerful enough to take down the plane. A U.S. official said authorities believed a second device found in Dubai was similarly potent.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told reporters that the United States and the United Arab Emirates had provided intelligence that helped identify the woman suspected of mailing the packages.

A Yemeni security official said that the young woman was a medical student and that her mother also had been detained.

They were held as part of a widening hunt for suspects believed to have used forged documents and ID cards, Yemeni officials said. One member of Yemen's antiterrorism unit said the other suspects had been tied to al-Qaeda.

The officials, like many in the United States, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation unfolding on three continents.

Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, took responsibility for a failed bombing aboard a Detroit-bound airliner last Christmas. The bomb used in that attack contained PETN, an industrial explosive also used in the mail bombs found Friday.

The suspected bombmaker behind the Christmas Day attack, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, is also the prime suspect in the mail-bomb plot, several U.S. officials said. Asiri also helped make another PETN device for an attempt against a top Saudi counterterrorism official last year. The official survived, but the suicide bomber died in the blast.

"The forensic analysis is under way," President Obama's counterterrorism chief, John Brennan, said Friday. "Clearly from the initial observation, the initial analysis that was done, the materials that were found in the device that was uncovered [were] intended to do harm."

Officials said the plot was discovered thanks to intelligence from Saudi Arabia. Without that tip, it is unclear whether anyone would have discovered the bombs before they were airborne or on U.S. soil.

American officials do not get details about the contents of a U.S.-bound cargo plane until four hours before it is scheduled to land. In the case of long-distance flights, those planes would already be airborne. Once a plane lands, officials screen packages that they feel warrant a closer look.

The failed attack should be a "wake-up call" that the United States needs to step up security on cargo planes, said Missouri's Christopher S. Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The United States temporarily banned all cargo and mail from Yemen. A UPS employee in Yemen said the office had temporarily halted receiving any packages for delivery.

In Chicago, the leader of a North Side synagogue told members of his congregation at weekend services that a smaller congregation that uses their building was one of the targets of the plot.

Rabbi Michael Zedek of Emmanuel Congregation said he was told by a Jewish leader in Chicago that the smaller Or Chadash congregation was one of the targets. The FBI did not confirm that, and both Zedek and Or Chadash Rabbi Larry Edwards said they had not spoken to law enforcement.

Members of Or Chadash took the news calmly, Edwards said. The synagogue, which has about 100 members, serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews and their families.

The Homeland Security Department said it was stepping up airline security, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Americans did not need to change their travel plans.