Fugitive bomb maker named as one who designed bombs

Fugitive bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri — who is believed to have built devices for two previous attempted attacks — is believed to have created the explosives placed on U.S.-bound planes on Friday, according to senior U.S. officials.

Two powerful explosives were sent as cargo from Yemen on Friday, and were addressed to locations “associated with synagogues” in Chicago, officials said, and are believed to have been designed to blow up the airplanes carrying them.

The forensic analysis of the two packages, which continued print cartridges containing explosives, showed that that were constructed by the fugitive Saudi bomb maker, who is a member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to John O. Brennan, the White House senior counter-terrorism adviser.

Brennan also said that any more packages carrying explosives en route and Yemen would be checked.