Al Qaeda 'plot to blow up passenger jet' in run up to Olympics uncovered by security forces

Terrorists from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), based in Yemen, are understood to be behind this latest plot.

The same group were revealed to have been behind at least four other attempted attacks in the last four years.

Nigerian-born British student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was ordered to carryout a suicide mission for AQAP when he attempted to detonate a bomb in his underpants as the plane, en route from Amsterdam, approached Detroit.

It failed to fully detonate aboard the flight, which was carrying nearly 300 people, but caused a brief fire that badly burned his groin.

Passengers pounced on Abdulmutallab and forced him to the front of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 where he was held until the plane landed minutes later.

In 2009, months before the attack, he travelled to Yemen to see Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric and one of the best-known al Qaeda figures, according to the government. 

In February, this year, a U.S. court jailed him for life without parole.

AQAP were said to be responsibility for a sophisticated attempt to blow up a cargo plane with bombs hidden in ink cartridges.

At least one of the bombs planted on cargo planes heading for Chicago was primed to explode once the aircraft reached the U.S. mainland.

The terror plot was thwarted after the two devices - hidden inside printer cartridges - were intercepted at airports in Nottingham and Dubai on October 29, last year.

Both bombs contained quantities of the powerful explosive PETN. The device discovered in the UK contained  400 grams of the lethal ingredient – 50 times more than needed to punch a hole in the aircraft’s skin – and was wired to a mobile phone.

The device, discovered at East Midland airport, was timed to explode during flight after it entered U.S. air space, Scotland Yard officials said at the time of the plot's discovery.

In May, this year, it was revealed security agencies had thwarted another AQAP plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner.

The attack was prevented because the intended bomber was actually a double agent who infiltrated the group and volunteered for the suicide mission, it was revealed.

Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency placed the undercover operator inside AQAP where he convinced his handlers to give him the new type of non-metallic bomb.

The agent, who was in Yemen, was liaising with the CIA before handing the device over to intelligence services.