Al-Qaeda terrorist considered 'probably the most sophisticated bomb-maker on the planet' killed by US drone strike, US officials confirm

U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Cory D. Payne/Handout via REUTERS

An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted drone aircraft performs aerial maneuvers over Creech Air Force Base

• US officials are confident that Ibrahim al-Asiri, an infamous al-Qaeda bomb-maker and who masterminded a plot to down a commercial airliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009, was killed in a US drone strike last year, according to multiple reports.
• This particular terrorist was described by a former US intelligence official as "probably the most sophisticated terrorist bomb maker on the planet," CBS News reported Monday.
• That same official, former CIA deputy director Michael Morell, called his death "the most significant removal of a terrorist from the battlefield since the killing of [Osama] bin Laden."

Ibrahim al-Asiri, a master bomb-maker for al-Qaeda believed to have masterminded a plot to down a commercial airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen last year, US officials confirmed to Fox News and CBS News Monday.

Al-Asiri is said to have made the underwear bomb that a Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit in December 2009. He was also involved in a plot to hide explosives in printer cartridges being shipped to the US.

The first attack was unsuccessful because the attacker failed to detonate the device, and the other bombs were discovered after a last-minute tip.

Prior to his death, he was believed to have been working on bombs that could be hidden inside laptops.

A former intelligence official said that al-Asiri is a big reason for increased TSA security at airports. "A good chunk of what you have to take out of your bag and what has to be screened is because of Asiri and his capabilities of putting explosives in very difficult to find places," former CIA deputy director Michael Morell told CBS News, describing the terrorist as "probably the most sophisticated terrorist bomb maker on the planet."

In 2009, Al-Asiri hid explosives in his brother's clothes in an attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabia's interior minister. His brother was killed in the attack, Fox News reported.

Official confirmation that the Saudi national and one of America's most wanted terrorists is dead comes after reports from the United Nations, as well as statements from a Yemeni security official and al-Qaeda tribal leader indicating that the bomb maker was killed in a drone strike in the eastern Yemeni governorate of Marib, according to the Associated Press.

Al-Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous outfits, primarily because of al-Asiri's abilities. His death is a crushing blow to the terrorist group's capabilities.