Trump confirms Al-Qaeda bombmaker killed two years ago

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that master al-Qaeda bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri was killed two years ago in a US counter-terrorism operation in Yemen. Asiri, a Saudi national, was reputed to have made the so-called underwear bomb used in a failed attempt to bring down a US airliner on Christmas Day in 2009. “The United States will continue to hunt down terrorists like al-Asiri until they no longer pose a threat to our great Nation,” Trump said in a statement. It did not say why Trump is confirming al-Asiri´s death now. Asiri´s death had been reported by US defense and other sources in August 2018, but this was the first official confirmation of his death. Trump´s statement provided no details on the operation in which he was killed. Asiri´s activities kept airlines on tenterhooks for years, at times forcing suspensions of trans-Atlantic flights.