THE YEMEN-BASED arm of al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for last week’s plot to send explosive devices on cargo planes bound for the United States, CNN reports.

The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) group posted its claim of responsibility on various Islamist websites, which were translated by SITE Intelligence Group. The announcement stated:

We will continue to strike blows against American interests and the interest of America’s allies.

The group have also claimed responsibility for the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Dubai on 3 September, which killed the two pilots on board.

A US counterterrorism official announced on Friday that while “there are very strong indications that AQAP was responsible for plotting last week’s disrupted cargo plane plot … we can’t confirm at this point their claims about the early September incident.”

In October, two bombs hidden in printer cartridges were found on two separate cargo planes in Yemen. The bombs were addressed to synagogues in Chicago, and one had been carried on two passenger flights before being intercepted by police, The Irish Times reports.

In the claim of responsibility by al-Qaeda, AQAP stated:

Since both operations were successful, we intend to spread the idea to our mujahedeen brothers in the world and enlarge the circle of its application to include civilian aircraft in the West as well as cargo aircraft.

A number of western countries have suspended air freight from Yemen as a result of October’s foiled bomb attack.