An al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen apparently ordered the plot against a U.S. airliner, training and arming the 23-year-old Nigerian man accused in the failed bombing, U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday. A senior administration official had said the United States was increasingly confident there was a link between Abdulmutallab and an al-Qaida affiliate, but Obama"s statement was the strongest connection between the two. "We know that he traveled to Yemen. It appears that he joined an affiliate of al-Qaida, and that this group trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America," the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address. It was released by the White House during Obama"s vacation in Hawaii. Obama noted that in recent years, the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen has bombed government facilities there as well as Western hotels, restaurants and embassies. An attack on the U.S. Embassy in 2008 killed one American. "So, as president, I"ve made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the Yemeni government," he said.
