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Jan 9, 2010

20 more bombers in training

WASHINGTON - A YOUNG Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a US airliner boasted during his interrogation that some 20 others were being trained to carry out similar attacks, CBS reported on Friday. British intelligence officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, had 'boasted that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners,' CBS reported. Abdulmutallab on Friday pleaded not guilty to six charges arising out of the botched Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. He allegedly stitched two highly explosive substances into his clothes, and tried to detonate them as the plane carrying 290 people approached Detroit. But the device failed, and instead Abdulmutallab was arrested after being overpowered by passengers and crew. He has since been interrogated by FBI and US agents who are leading the investigation. US officials have said he is providing useful leads. -- AFP

[Sarah Armstrong]

Apr 28, 2010
Tape of bomber reviewed

WASHINGTON - US INVESTIGATORS were reviewing a videotape of the accused underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab apparently receiving weapons training before he allegedly tried to blow up a US airliner, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday. ABC News broadcast the videotape on Monday in which Abdulmutallab, originally from Nigeria, made an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic and also appears holding a machine gun at a desert training camp. ABC News said the video was produced by Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

'We'll be looking at all of the information, all the evidence that is uncovered and going through with him much of this information so that we can glean actionable intelligence,' Mr Holder told reporters in response to a question about the tape. Mr Holder said he had seen the videotape, which shows others at the training camp, but some of them had their faces blurred or covered. It also shows bullets being fired into a flag with 'UN' written on it and another one with a Jewish star on it.

In the video, Abdulmutallab says Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula 'have the right to wage Jihad because the enemy is in your land.' On Christmas Day last year, Abdulmutallab tried but failed to blow up a US commercial flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with a device hidden in his underwear, US officials said. While charged with the alleged bombing attempt, he is now cooperating with investigators. He has previously told investigators he was trained by militants in Yemen affiliated with Al-Qaeda and that they gave him the bomb. -- REUTERS