Parcel Bomb Plotters May Have Had "Dry Run"
BBC reports:
A US official has told the BBC that suspect packages from Yemen were intercepted in September, in what may have been a dry run for last week's foiled parcel bomb plot.
The shipments from Yemen to Chicago are reported to have contained literature and other materials, but no explosives.
The idea was to test how long it would take for the packages to reach their destination, US officials suspect.
Last week, two parcel bombs were found on cargo planes in the UK and Dubai.
The parcels - with powerful PETN explosives hidden inside printer toner cartridges - were shipped from Yemen's capital Sanaa through UPS and another US cargo firm, FedEx.
Both packages - which have now been made safe - were addressed to synagogues in the US city of Chicago.
Investigators have linked the "dry run" and last weekend's bombs to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
'One scenario'
The US official was speaking to the BBC on condition on anonymity.
The apparent dry run was first reported by ABC News on Monday and later by the New York Times.
They quoted intelligence officials - who also spoke on condition of anonymity - as saying that the shipments in September may have been used to plan the route and timing for the two parcel bombs discovered last Friday.
"That was one scenario that was considered," one of the officials told the New York Times.
The newspaper added that the plotters may have used the information to estimate when cargo planes carrying the parcel bombs would be over Chicago or another city to trigger explosions and cause the greatest damage.
The packages were stopped in transit and searched, the officials said.
They also said they they suspected the "dry run" packages had been sent by al-Qaeda's Yemeni branch.
On Sunday, the US pinpointed Saudi bombmaker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, said to be in his 20s, as a key suspect in the failed bomb plot.
