US plane bomber wanted to study sharia in Yemen

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The Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a US airliner planned to study Islamic law in Yemen, the Arabian peninsular state which is fighting a local branch of al Qaeda, the Nigerian government said on Tuesday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, lived in Yemen from August to December after obtaining a visa to study Arabic there, the Yemeni government said.

Nigeria's information minister said Abdulmutallab, the son of a wealthy banker, had at one point appeared to want to study sharia in Yemen long-term.

"After a few weeks he now sent a message to (his) parents that he wanted to stay back and study sharia for seven years and the father said no, you can't do that," Dora Akunyili told reporters in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

"The father said they were not ready to send him school fees or money for upkeep, that he should go back to Dubai and complete his masters. (But Abdulmutallab) said he was going to get everything free," she said.

A wing of al Qaeda based in Yemen said it was behind the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Delta Airlines plane, which was meant to avenge U.S. attacks on the group, according to a web statement.

The Yemeni government, which is fighting Shi'ite rebels in the north and faces separatist sentiment in the south, said the country could be home to up to 300 al Qaeda militants, some of whom may be planning attacks on the West.

"Of course there are a number of al Qaeda operatives in Yemen and some of their leaders. We realise this danger," Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi told BBC radio.

"And they may actually plan for attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit."

Yemen has been a long-standing base of support for al Qaeda. Militants bombed the Navy warship USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, killing 17 U.S. sailors, and Yemenis were one of the largest groups to train in al Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan before September 11, 2001 attacks.