A British undercover agent infiltrated al-Qaeda, volunteered to be a suicide bomber and smuggled out the latest version of the deadly underpants bomb, it can be disclosed.
The man, who risked his life to get close to al-Qaeda’s master bomb-maker in the Yemen, is of Saudi origin but holds a British passport, sources told the Daily Telegraph. MI5 recruited the agent for an operation in which the CIA planned to target the bomb-maker with a missile from an unmanned drone. MI6 then worked with the Saudis who have previously infiltrated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), based in Yemen.
The individual was sent to target Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the ruthless Saudi-born bomb-maker for AQAP. He infiltrated the terrorist group, risking execution if he was discovered, and volunteered to be a suicide bomber. Two weeks ago, the agent walked away from al-Qaeda with the device he was supposed to use in an attack on US-bound aircraft.
He traveled to the United Arab Emirates and then to Saudi Arabia, with the device before handing it over to his British handlers.
May be he ‘invented’ it as well? (Just to complete the cycle…)