Al-Qaida Operative Threatened US on Dec 21: Reports
Four days before failed attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight, a video posted online by an al-Qaida operative in Yemen threatened the US saying that ‘we are carrying a bomb’, said reports.
Though the video does not have any obvious proof that the speaker was anticipating Friday’s attempt but it has alarmed security because of reports that the bombing could have been plotted in Yemen.
US law enforcement officials said that the Nigerian man accused in the attack claimed that he got training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives there.
According to a key American lawmaker, there are ‘strong suggestions’ of a Yemen connection, said reports.
In the video posed on December 21, the al-Qaida operative delivered a eulogy for militants killed in a Yemeni airstrike on a militant training camp four days earlier and that he had no agenda against Yemeni soldiers but warned them against cooperating wit Americans.
“We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God,” the speaker says.
“O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents, and beware of standing in the ranks of America,” he says. “You should not defend these regimes. The soldiers and even Obama cannot put out the light of Islam.”
The video was posted on extremist Web sites and the speaker was Mohammed al-Kalwi, an al-Qaida activist reportedly killed in airstrike on Thursday.
