Reports: Yemen bomb plotters may have done 'dry run'

US intelligence officials tracked several shipments of household goods from Yemen to Chicago in September and considered that the parcels might be a dry run for a terrorist attack, The New York Times and ABC News reported on Monday.

Intelligence officials believe the tracking of the shipments may have been used to plan the route and timing for two parcel bombs discovered on Friday on US-bound planes.

"That was one scenario that was considered," said an official who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity.

The "dry run" involved a carton of household goods including books, religious literature, and a computer disk, but no explosives, shipped from Yemen to Chicago, the report said.

ABC reported that officials believe the earlier flight might have been used to track how long it took and whether there would be any problems for the package getting through the system.

One of US-bound explosive printers (Photo: AP)

Governments have tightened aviation security after two devices sent in air cargo from Yemen were intercepted in Dubai and Britain.

The bombs were hidden in printer toner cartridges and would have been powerful enough to destroy the planes carrying them, Britain said.

US and British officials said the sophisticated devices bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.

The New York Times said the apparent test run may have allowed the plotters to estimate when cargo planes carrying the explosive toner cartridges would be over Chicago or another city.

That would permit them to set timers on the two devices to trigger explosions where they would cause the greatest damage, the Times said.

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