Al Qaeda is plotting to blow up an American airliner in the run-up to this month’s London Olympics and has trained a Norwegian Muslim convert in an attempt to evade airport security, British media reported. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has trained the Norwegian convert and is understood to have also selected a target, believed to be a US passenger jet; ‘The Sunday Times’ quoted intelligence sources as saying. “The Norwegian recruit goes under the name of Muslim Abu Abdurrahman. He is understood to be in his thirties and a ‘clean skin’ , with no previous criminal record,” it said. “He converted in 2008 and quickly became radicalized.
He later travelled to Yemen , where he has spent several months, to complete his training,” the paper said. The plot confirms fears among US and British intelligence agencies that al Qaeda is seeking to recruit radicalised westerners in an attempt to evade airport security, it said. The Norwegian was believed to have been in the southeastern town of Azzan, the longtime home of AQAP, until last month. He then moved to Dammaj, a town in the north. The new plot is the terror group’s fourth to be detected since 2009, when AQAP sent a Nigerian-born British student on a plane with an underpants bomb. The bomb failed to detonate over Detroit and the man was arrested and jailed.
