How al-Qaeda airline fiend used leg bomb and syringe ?

Source:  FOX NEWS

NY POST
Last Updated: 5:28 AM, December 26, 2009

Posted: 9:06 PM, December 25, 2009
The man who tried to blow up a US airliner as it prepared to land at Detroit on Christmas Day had an explosive powder strapped to his leg which he tried to ignite by injecting chemicals with a syringe, Fox News reports.

The 23-year-old - named as al-Qaeda-linked Nigerian engineering student Abdul Mudallad (alters from earlier spelling of Mudallah) - failed in his bid to achieve a major blast, but succeeded in burning himself seriously and inflicting minor injuries on at least two other passengers seated nearby on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

He was immediately subdued.

READ: AL-QAEDA LINK EYED IN FAILED PLANE ATTACK

Passenger Syed Jafri, a US citizen who was seated three rows behind the Mudallad, told the Associated Press he saw a glow and noticed a smoke smell.

Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him (Mudallad). Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic.''

Another passenger said: "There was smoke and screaming and flames. It was scary''.

A spokeswoman for Northwest's parent company Delta said the flight, from Amsterdam, was carrying 278 passengers. They have been questioned by officials and their luggage - and the rest of the Airbus - has been screened for more explosives.

Mudallad sustained serious burns, described to Fox News by one US official as third-degree. Analysis of the explosive material, which appears to be chemical in nature, is ongoing.

The US official told Fox News that Nigeria is "a center for concern'', adding that about a year ago the Department of Homeland Security "reached out to Nigerian authorities to improve airport screening''.

Earlier Rep. Peter King (R-New York), the ranking Republican member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox Report the "sophisticated device" was one not encountered by authorities before, which may be why it got through security screening.

Mudallad is reportedly an engineering student at University College of London, who claimed he was traveling from Nigeria to the US via Amsterdam - where he got on Flight 253 - for a religious ceremony.

Security officials in the UK capital are waging an ongoing struggle against terrorist cells and have thwarted several plots since the London bombings of July 2005, in which 56 people died.

British al-Qaeda thug Richard Reid was the infamous shoe bomber who tried to destroy American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami in December 2001, by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes. His plot failed and he was subdued by passengers.

Mudallad is being questioned by officials after the incident, which occurred around noon local time and which was branded an attempted terrorist attack by the White House.

CBS reported he has told investigators he was affiliated with al-Qaeda and that he had acquired the explosive in Yemen, along with instructions as to when it should be used.

Congressman King told Fox Mudallad "definitely has connections" to the Islamic group, headed by Osama bin Laden.



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The man who tried to blow up a US airliner as it prepared to land at Detroit on Christmas Day had an explosive powder strapped to his leg which he tried to ignite by injecting chemicals with a syringe, Fox News reports.

The 23-year-old - named as al-Qaeda-linked Nigerian engineering student Abdul Mudallad (alters from earlier spelling of Mudallah) - failed in his bid to achieve a major blast, but succeeded in burning himself seriously and inflicting minor injuries on at least two other passengers seated nearby on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

He was immediately subdued.

READ: AL-QAEDA LINK EYED IN FAILED PLANE ATTACK

Passenger Syed Jafri, a US citizen who was seated three rows behind the Mudallad, told the Associated Press he saw a glow and noticed a smoke smell.

Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him (Mudallad). Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic.''

Another passenger said: "There was smoke and screaming and flames. It was scary''.

A spokeswoman for Northwest's parent company Delta said the flight, from Amsterdam, was carrying 278 passengers. They have been questioned by officials and their luggage - and the rest of the Airbus - has been screened for more explosives.

Mudallad sustained serious burns, described to Fox News by one US official as third-degree. Analysis of the explosive material, which appears to be chemical in nature, is ongoing.

The US official told Fox News that Nigeria is "a center for concern'', adding that about a year ago the Department of Homeland Security "reached out to Nigerian authorities to improve airport screening''.

Earlier Rep. Peter King (R-New York), the ranking Republican member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox Report the "sophisticated device" was one not encountered by authorities before, which may be why it got through security screening.

Mudallad is reportedly an engineering student at University College of London, who claimed he was traveling from Nigeria to the US via Amsterdam - where he got on Flight 253 - for a religious ceremony.

Security officials in the UK capital are waging an ongoing struggle against terrorist cells and have thwarted several plots since the London bombings of July 2005, in which 56 people died.

British al-Qaeda thug Richard Reid was the infamous shoe bomber who tried to destroy American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami in December 2001, by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes. His plot failed and he was subdued by passengers.

Mudallad is being questioned by officials after the incident, which occurred around noon local time and which was branded an attempted terrorist attack by the White House.

CBS reported he has told investigators he was affiliated with al-Qaeda and that he had acquired the explosive in Yemen, along with instructions as to when it should be used.

Congressman King told Fox Mudallad "definitely has connections" to the Islamic group, headed by Osama bin Laden.

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