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Western counter-terrorism analysts became aware that muslim radicals were using bombs that could escape convention detection, sometimes referred to as underwear bombs. At christmas 2009 Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab a Nigerian with a valid visa to the United States flew to Detroit with a new kind of bomb. Rather than employing an electrical trigger, it was to be triggered by a chemical reaction when he mixed two volatile but innocent looking liquids.
Counter-terrorism officials assert this bomb had been designed and built by Ibrahim al-Asiri, who the described as the chief bomb-maker of an offshoot of Al Qaeda known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Four months earlier Ibrahim's younger brother Abdullah al-Asiri had blown himself up while trying to assassinate Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of the Interior, Mohammed bin Nayef, with another bomb designed to escape detection. Ibrahim's bomb was said to have been designed by Ibrahim. Abdullah was widely reported to have hidden the bomb up his rectum.
In May 2012 a mole was reported to have undergone training, and have been issued a new and improved underwear bomb, which he promptly turned over to his handlers. This new improved bomb was also believed to have been designed by Ibrahim al Asiri.
Anticipating that he too may be killed by a missile fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle al-Asiri is reported to have trained apprentices who could replace him.