Authorities Believe Immediate Threat Contained, But Warn More Attacks Coming
Al Qaeda Bombs From Yemen Were Bound For Chicago Synagogues
Al Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsula
While President Obama did not say that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was behind the apparent bombing attempt, he did note Friday that Al Qaeda's Yemeni offshoot continues to seek ways to attack the United States.
The radical American-born cleric Anwar a-Awlaki has repeatedly called on for attacks on the U.S. from his base in Yemen.
American officials believe that AQAP has trained hundreds of terrorists whose prime objective is to attack the US, including the so-called underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
"Yemen is the home of between 500 and 600 al Qaeda fighters, three or four times the number of al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan," said Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism official and now an ABC News consultant. "This is really a place where Al Qaeda is operating, where it's strong, where it has training camps, where we know they have trained people and sent them to the United States."
U.S. authorities have now ordered every package shipped from Yemen to the U.S. to be inspected.
FedEx also said in a statement that local authorities, in cooperation with the FBI, had "confiscated a suspicious package at the FedEx facility in Dubai. The shipment originated in Yemen and as an additional safety measure, FedEx has embargoed all shipments originating from Yemen."
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
