Al Qaida hevdet mandag at gruppen sto bak nigerianeren som forsøkte å sprenge et Airbus-fly over Detroit 1. juledag. Grunnen som oppgis er USAs delaktighet i angrep mot Al Qaida-celler i Jemen den senere tid.

The accused, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had co-ordinated the plot with members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said the statement, according to US monitor SITE Intelligence.

Officials said at the weekend that the 23-year-old had told US investigators al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen had supplied him with the bomb and trained him in how to detonate it.

Yemeni forces, aided by US intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against al-Qaeda in the country this month, the second of which came on the eve of the attempted plane bombing.
Dozens of militants are reported to have died in the attacks.

In its internet statement, quoted by Reuters news agency, al-Qaeda said: «We call on all Muslims… to throw out all unbelievers from the Arabian Peninsula by killing crusaders who work in embassies or elsewhere… [in] a total war on all crusaders in the Peninsula of [Prophet] Muhammad.»

En sikkerhetsekspert sier til CNN at Jemen ikke er på randen til å bli en failed state, det er allerede en failed state.

Al-Qaeda claims Christmas Day US flight bomb plot