Yemen mail bomb ‘timed to hit US’

The bomb was hidden inside a printer ink cartridge

Tests on a failed parcel bomb sent on a US-bound cargo flight last month show it could have been designed to detonate over the eastern US, say police.

The bomb was found in a printer cartridge on a plane in a UK airport, after being posted from Yemen.

“If the device had activated it would have been at 1030hrs BST (0930 GMT) on Friday 29 October 2010,” said British police.

A second mail bomb, also sent from Yemen, was intercepted in Dubai.

The UK bomb, intercepted at East Midlands airport, was discovered early on 29 October, following a tip-off from Saudi intelligence.

It was removed and “disrupted” by explosives officers about three hours before it was timed to detonate, police said in a statement.

“If the device had not been removed from the aircraft the activation could have occurred over the eastern seaboard of the US,” they said.

Both the intercepted parcels contained the powerful plastic explosive PETN, which is difficult to detect, and were addressed to synagogues in Chicago.

The attempted attacks have been blamed on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

How the plot emerged:

Device 1 intercepted at East Midlands Airport in the UK. It was posted via UPS in Yemen and is believed to have been flown via Dubai and CologneDevice 2 intercepted in Dubai after flying on two Qatar Airways passenger jets from Yemen. It was posted via freight firm FedExBoth devices are addressed to synagogues in Chicago, and contain PETN explosives stuffed into printer cartridgesOther UPS cargoes are searched in Newark, Philadelphia and New York as the alert spreadsThe UK government later says it believes Device 1 was designed to go off on board the plane

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