WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department sanctioned a Yemeni bomb maker who recruited his own brother for a suicide operation against a Saudi minister.
The U.S. State Department announced it sanctioned Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri, a bomb maker for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Before joining AQAP, the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida, Asiri was tied to a terrorist cell in Saudi Arabia.
He recruited his brother, Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri, for a February 2009 assassination attempt on Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. The prince was slightly wounded in the suicide operation.
The AQAP bomb maker is wanted by the Saudi government and Interpol.
U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper said AQAP was a key threat to U.S. national security. He said that while AQAP was directing its energy on Yemen and Saudi Arabia, it's "increasingly devoted" to inspiring attacks on the United States.
AQAP leader Anwar al-Awlaki said he was in contact with the alleged triggerman in a shooting rampage in 2009 in Fort Hood, Texas, before the assault. AQAP was also linked to a failed plot to down a U.S. passenger plane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 and several bombing attempts targeting international freight carriers last year.
