Obama vows to crush terror

“I have directed my national security team to keep up pressure on those who would attack our country. We do not yet have all the answers about this latest attempt, but those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the US will do more than simply strengthen our defences,” he said in his first public comments on the December 25 failed bid to blow up the jet carrying 278 people.
A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and the US will not rest until it finds all who were involved and hold them accountable, Obama said in his nationally-televised remarks from Hawaii, where the President’s family is holidaying.

“Had the suspect succeeded in bringing down that plane, it could have killed nearly 300 passengers and crew, innocent civilians preparing to celebrate the holidays with their families and friends,” Obama said.

In the incident aboard a Northwest Airlines flight making its final approach to the Detroit airport, 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a suspected al-Qaeda operative, allegedly attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear, setting off a fire at his seat on the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda claimed its role in the failed attempt to blow up the plane on Christmas. Maryland-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors radical Islamist forums and websites, said the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula made such a claim on December 28 in a communique issued to fundamentalist groups.

Technical fault
The al-Qaeda’s Arabian franchise acknowledged that a “technical fault” had caused the failure of the plot against Friday’s Northwest Airlines flight.
The statement, accompanied by a picture of suspected would-be bomber Adulmutallab, said a “wealthy youth of Nigerian descent” responded to “unjust aggression on the Arabian Peninsula”. Abdul Mutallab has been charged with trying to destroy the Detroit-bound US plane. He is currently lodged in a federal prison.
PTI