Al Qaeda ink cartridge bomb found on plane bound for Chicago is linked to cellular phone SIM card

The U.S.-bound package discovered on a plane in Dubai contained explosives and an electrical circuit linked to a mobile phone SIM card, police said today.

The device was prepared in a 'professional manner' and bore the hallmarks of terror groups such as al Qaeda, Dubai Police said in a statement.

The explosive material PETN, or pentaerythritol trinitrate, was used, the statement said.

This is the same chemical found after the failed attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit last Christmas.

A terrorist bomb plot targeting Jewish houses of worship in Chicago has sparked a trans-Atlantic security scare.

Obama said yesterday that two packages from the Middle East that were intercepted on their way to the US contained explosives and represented ‘a credible terrorist threat.’

With the mid-term elections looming on Tuesday, police and security agencies were on full alert amid fears of another attempted terror attack.

'The American people should know that the counter-terrorism professionals are taking this threat very seriously and are taking all necessary and prudent steps to ensure our security,’ the president said.

He confirmed that explosive material was discovered with two bomb packages found on a UPS plane in England and a Fedex facility in Dubai earlier today.

Both devices were disguised as harmless print cartridges. But they had been tampered with to tu them into improvised bombs with wires and cell phone components as possible detonators. There were also traces of white powder.

Search: Officials head straight for cargo hold to find the suspected package that has been sent from Yemen

Grounded: The Emirates plane on the tarmac at New York's JFK airport after being escorted down by U.S. fighters with a suspect package from Yemen on board

 

The Fed-Ex bomb: The booby-trapped printer was packed in a box together with a number of everyday items such as books and magazines

The packages spurred searches and investigations of jets arriving at New York's JFK Airport, Newark Inteational Airport in New Jersey and the airport in Philadelphia

Newark: A bomb squad officer carries a package away from a UPS cargo plane as the plane and its contents are searched inr Newark, New Jersey

 

Terrorists had tried to conceal a bomb inside this printer, which was intercepted by Dubai police en route from the Yemen to Chicago

They were intercepted during an inteational search after US intelligence agencies got a tip-off waing of a plot being orchestrated by an al Qaeda cell in Yemen to launch a bomb attack on synagogues and other Jewish centres in Chicago.

Mr Obama said that further packages were being tracked, with as many as 16 'of interest to the security services.

Mr Obama effectively named the Islamist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as being chief suspects.

‘I've also directed that we spare no effort in investigating the origins of these suspicious packages and their connection to any additional terrorist plotting,’ he said.

‘Although we are still pursuing all the facts, we do know that the packages originated in Yemen. We also know that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a terrorist group based in Yemen, continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens, and our friends and allies.’

Other packages coming from Yemen are being scrutinised but no other suspicious packages have been found so far.

They were ‘intended to do harm’, said top White House terrorism advisor John Brennan.

The explosive material is thought to have been PETN, the same incendiary chemical used by failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Mr Brennan said he didn’t know how the devices were going to be activated, but forensic experts were examining both items.

Both came from the same address in Yemen. The suspect device in Dubai is understood to have been hidden in a Hewlett Packard printer.

Mr Brennan has been in touch with Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to express America’s conce.

In a prepared statement, he thanked Saudi Arabia and other allies who helped uncover the threat.

He said: ‘The United States is grateful to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their assistance in developing information that helped underscore the imminence of the threat emanating from Yemen.

‘Their assistance, along with the hard work of the US counter-terrorism community, the United Kingdom, the UAE, and other friends and partners helped make it possible to increase our vigilance and identify the suspicious packages in Dubai and East Midlands Airport.'

The president was first alerted at 10.35pm on Thursday night after British authorities flagged up a ‘manipulated’ print toner cartridge on board a UPS plane making an oveight stop at the East Midlands Airport near Nottingham, England.

Fears that there may be other bombs on their way prompted a frantic flurry of activity this moing.

Two planes were searched on the tarmac in Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey - and a commercial flight from the United Arab Emirates to New York was also intercepted by military jets amid conce over its cargo from Yemen. All were later given the all clear.

The Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP, has been behind a series of recent attempted attacks on U.S. targets.

It orchestrated the unsuccessful Christmas Day attempt to blow up a plane on its approach to Detroil and one of the organisation’s leaders, U.S.-bo cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, has been linked to the Fort Hood shooting suspect, Major Nidal Hassan.

As many as 300 al Qaeda terrorists are understood to be based in Yemen, despite attempts by the country’s govement to crackdown.

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