Al-Qaeda small-scale bomb threat very serious: us

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Syrian security men investigate after a bomb attached to a fuel truck exploded outside a hotel where UN observers are staying in Damascus, Syria Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Nov 22: The latest pledge by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to carry out more small-scale bomb attacks is being treated as a "very serious threat," the top US military officer said Sunday.
Responding to the Yemen-based terror group's vow to attack the West with small but frequent strikes such as last month's cargo plane parcel bombs, Admiral Mike Mullen gave credit to people who have so far foiled such plots but expressed concern over AQAP's persistence to break through.
"It's a very serious threat, and I believe what they are saying," the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told ABC News show "This Week."
"They've grown, it's dangerous, and it's a place we need to focus," he added.
AQAP at the weekend unveiled what it described as its "strategy of a thousand cuts" that will "bleed the enemy to death", a monitoring group said.
The group said the packages it put aboard freight planes bound for the US in late October were never intended to cause mass casualties, but were aimed at creating maximum economic damage.