British identify plane bombs’ target

WASHINGTON – One of the bombs hidden last month in two U.S.-bound packages from Yemen was timed to explode over the East Coast of the United States, British authorities said Wednesday.

Al-Qaida’s Yemen-based wing has claimed responsibility for sending two parcel bombs concealed in printer cartridges that were intercepted last month in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and East Midlands, England.

Both package bombs were addressed to Jewish groups in Chicago, though officials have said they believe the devices were intended to detonate in flight.

The near-miss, which was thwarted after a tip from Saudi intelligence, has led the Obama administration to consider stepping up its covert campaign against the al-Qaida faction based on the Arabian Peninsula, including the potential for strikes from aerial drones.

One of the two bombs was taken off a cargo plane at East Midlands Airport north of London on Oct. 29.

“Forensic examination has indicated that if the device had activated it would have been at 10:30 hrs BST (9:30 a.m. British time) on Friday, 29 October 2010,” Scotland Yard said in a statement. That would’ve been 5:30 a.m. in New York.

“If the device had not been removed from the aircraft, the activation could have occurred over the eastern seaboard of the U.S.,” Scotland Yard’s statement said.

The bomb was defused by explosives officers less than three hours before it was set to explode, British police said.

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said last week one of the two parcel bombs was defused just 17 minutes before it was due to explode, but Scotland Yard said it could not confirm that.

Also Wednesday, U.S. authorities announced that al-Qaida was not behind the Sept. 3 crash of a UPS cargo plane in Dubai as the group had claimed.

“The available information continues to indicate that the crash was an accident,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak publicly about it.