SANAA, Yemen, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Yemen announced it was taking extra precautions and tightening security measures at its national airports in line with international trends.
Yemen's officials Saba news agency said security screeners are taking extra precautions at national airports. Airport screening was tightened following the failed downing of a U.S. passenger jet on Christmas Day.
Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosives in his undergarments on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He attempted to detonate the explosives as the flight from Amsterdam was on its way to Detroit.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the failed plot.
Sources told CBS news that Abdulmutallab corresponded with radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki regarding the details of the plot.
Virginia native Awlaki is known in the intelligence community for his extremist messages broadcast on the Internet. U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the accused shooter in the November attacks at Fort Hood, Texas, was known to have contacted the cleric prior to his attack.
Abdulmutallab told law enforcement officials he received his explosives from his Yemeni contracts, CBS said.
Awlaki and Fahd al-Qasa, a top terrorist leader, are thought to be hiding out in the mountainous regions of Yemen.
