CAIRO (AP)
(EYE ON THE WORLD) — A Saudi militant believed killed in the U.S. drone strike in Yemen
constructed the bombs for the al-Qaida branch's most notorious attempted
attacks — including the underwear-borne explosives intended to a down a
U.S. aircraft, and a bomb carried by his own brother intended to
assassinate a Saudi prince. ...The death of Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri would make the Friday drone strikes
on a convoy in the central deserts of Yemen one of the most effective
single blows in the U.S. campaign to take out al-Qaida's top figures. ...The strike also killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric who had
been key to recruiting for the militant group and a Pakistani-American,
Samir Khan, who was a top English-language propagandist. ...But Christopher Boucek, a scholar who studies Yemen and al-Qaida, said
al-Asiri's death would "overshadow" that of the two Americans due to his
operational importance to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the
Yemen-based group that is considered the most active branch of the
terror network. ...Late Friday, two U.S. officials said intelligence indicated al-Asiri was
among those killed in the strike. The officials spoke on condition of
anonymity because al-Asiri's death has not officially been confirmed. ...The 29-year-old al-Asiri was one of the first Saudis to join the
Yemen-based al-Qaida branch and became its key bombmaker, designing the
explosives in two attempted attacks against the United States. ...His fingerprint was found on the bomb hidden in the underwear of a
Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253
over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, according to U.S. counterterrorism
officials. The attack failed because the would-be bomber Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab botched detonating the explosives, ending up only burning
himself before being wrestled away by passengers. ...The explosives used in that bomb were chemically identical to those
hidden inside two printers that were shipped from Yemen last year, bound
for Chicago and Philadelphia in a plot claimed by al-Qaida. The bombs
were intercepted in England and Dubai. ...In perhaps his most ruthless operation, al-Asiri turned his younger
brother, Abdullah, into a human bomb in a 2009 attempt to kill Saudi
Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the kingdom's top counterterrorism official
and son of its interior minister. ...Abdullah volunteered for the suicide mission, asking to replace another
militant named to carry it out, according to an acccount in Sada
al-Malahem, an Arabic-language Web magazine issued by al-Qaida in the
Arabian Peninsula. Abdullah pretended he was surrendering to Saudi
authorities, and Prince Mohammed agreed to receive him in his home in
Jiddah during a gathering to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. ...While talking to the prince, Abdullah blew himself up. The prince, however, escaped with only injuries. (MORE PAIN)