Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden's father, is the base of operations for al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, a branch known for targeting Western interests in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials credited Saudi authorities Friday with helping them realize the "imminence of the threat emanating from Yemen." One of the group's key figures is Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Yemeni American cleric.
John Brennan, the president's counterterrorism adviser, was not prepared to lay blame for the devices but signaled that the group was a strong suspect. "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been rather open in its venom towards the United States, toward Western interests," he said. "There are a number of individuals there that we're very concerned about, so we're looking at all possibilities."