Search Widens in Muslim Terror Plot to Blow up Planes and Synagogues, Bombs "Expertly Constructed"

The bombs set to go off on passenger jets and synagogues my Muslim terrorists  "were expertly constructed."

Yemeni security forces have also launched a wider search for more suspects believed to be linked to the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda and the mail bombs, AFP reported, citing local media reports.

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Engineering student Hanan Al Samawi, 22, was detained along with her mother after being traced by a receipt for the packages which were found on freighter jets in Britain and Dubai in an alleged al Qaeda plot.

Two parcel bombs were found on the planes and a further 26 packages have been seized in Yemen's capital Sanaa since.

Officials said the two women were arrested as part of the hunt for a number of suspects believed to have used forged documents and ID cards that played a role in the plot.

Yemeni security forces have also launched a wider search for more suspects believed to be linked to the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda and the mail bombs, AFP reported, citing local media reports.

The Washington Post and Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported that investigators believed the mastermind behind the plot was a Saudi bomb-maker who last year sent his brother to his death in an effort to kill a Saudi prince.

Ibrahim Hassan al Asiri, a 28-year-old who is on Saudi Arabia's most-wanted list, introduced a bomb in a body cavity of his younger brother, Abdullah, who pretended to be turning himself in, The Post reported.

The bomb killed his brother and wounded a top counterterrorism official and Saudi royal.

Asiri, who is based in Yemen, is also believed to have built the underwear bomb of Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who was trained in Yemen and attempted to blow up a commercial aircraft approaching Detroit last December.

US President Barack Obama has made it clear he suspects the involvement of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - the Yemen-based branch of Usama bin Laden's extremist network - and vowed to wipe out the organisation.

Teeming with Obama's GITMO releases.

Dubai police said the parcel bomb found there bore the "hallmarks of al Qaeda". It involved the high explosive pentaerythritol trinitrate (PETN) hidden inside a computer printer with a circuit board and mobile phone SIM card attached.

The New York Times reported that investigators said the bombs were expertly constructed.