A senior US official said the recent al Qaeda threat “expanded the scope of people we could go after” in Yemen because it shed light on those who are providing direct support for terrorism. The State Department condemned the terrorists who set off a number of car bombs in Baghdad as “enemies of Islam” for targeting families celebrating Eid al-Fitr, and reiterated the offer of a $10 million reward for information leading to the capture of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is thought to be in Syria. Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, a Bangladeshi national, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for an al Qaeda-inspired plot to bomb the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan.
