2 Jan, 2010, America

The US President Barrack Obama for the first time has publicly accused an offshoot of al-Qaeda over the alleged Christmas Day bomb plot blowing up a US plane. It appeared that Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had armed and trained the accused, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Mr. Obama has already condemned lapses which allowed the accused, who was on a terror database, to board the jet. The US officials have not until now publicly accused the al-Qaeda over an incident on the Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. Mr. Obama has come under the heavy criticism from the Republicans, who accuse him of not doing enough to prevent the attacks on the US.

The US president – who last week ordered two security reviews, used much of his latest address to outline the administration’s measures to keep America safe. He said that these included withdrawing troops from Iraq, boosting troop levels in Afghanistan and targeting militants in Yemen, where the suspect spent time before the attack.

The US Congress is preparing hearings to question intelligence officials on security failings that allowed a man whom US officials had been warned about, and who had a valid US travel visa, to allegedly smuggle explosives on to a transatlantic jet. Mr. Abdulmutallab is in US custody, who is accused of trying to detonate explosives strapped to his body as the plane, with nearly 300 people on board, prepared to land.