Cargo-bomb plot cost just $4,200 : Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda's recent Cargo-bomb plots which were foiled by the Saudi intelligence cost them just $4200, according the group's propaganda magazine. The Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) detailed the plot it called Operation Hemorrhage in its latest edition of the Inspire magazine.

It is a good bargain for us to spread fear amongst the enemy with only a few months of work and a few thousand bucks, the report in the magazine said.

The third issue of the magazine was released on to jihadist forums on Sunday. US-based militant monitoring groups IntelCenter and the Site Intelligence Group maintained that the issue was a special edition dedicated to the parcel bomb plot. It featured articles describing the details of the plot and the components of the bombs planted in printer cartridges and other object on cargo airplanes. The magazine also stated that the bomb makers made the parcel bombs in a way that they remain undetected by sniffer dogs and other security apparatus.

Earlier this month, two packages containing explosives were also intercepted in Cargo aircraft. Saudi Arabia's intelligence apparatus alerted the officials in UK and Dubai that the packages were being shipped by air from Yemen to the United States. Security officials seized a package at the East Midlands airport, in Nottingham, on a flight from Cologne to Chicago. One of the packages was found on a United Parcel Service cargo plane and the other bomb was discovered in a parcel at a FedEx facility in Dubai.

Two Nokia mobiles, $150 each, two HP printers, $300 each, plus shipping, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses add up to a total bill of $4,200. We will continue with similar operations and we do not mind at all in this stage if they are intercepted, the report in the magazine stated.

To bring down America we need not strike big, it added. The publication called this 'the strategy of a thousand cuts'.

The group maintained that the objective of the plots was not to inflict causalities but to damage the the aviation industry. 'An industry that is so vital for trade and transportation between the US and Europe', it said. It also reiterated its claims to have brought down a United Parcel Service aircraft near Dubai in September this year.

A UPS Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed at an air force base shortly after take-off from Dubai airport, killing two crew members on board in September. UAE officials maintained that the plane was diverted to the base after reporting trouble but then it hit a covered car park and burst into flames. Intelligence agencies ruled it out as an accident but al-Qaeda issued statement this month claiming responsibility.