Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, has claimed responsibility for Friday's attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to the US city of Detroit.

In a two-page statement posted on Islamist websites, which included a photograph of the would-be bomber, 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed the attempt was to avenge a US attack on the group in Yemen.
 

The organisation said it provided Mr Abdulmutallab with "a technically advanced instrument," and boasted that "our Nigerian brother... was able to breach all the modern and sophisticated technologies and checkpoints at the airports around the world". The group said the attack on Christmas Day failed due to a technical malfunction. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also called on its members to kill workers at Western embassies in the region.
 

In his first official response to the attack, US President Barack Obama vowed to hunt down the terrorists responsible, saying, "we will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us". President Obama also said an evaluation of security procedures and the services responsible for carrying them out was on the way.
 

There was some evidence that Mr Abdulmutallab, described as "an industrious and well-mannered student," was developing extremist views. Despite the evidence, the Nigerian was not put on the no-fly list.