Al-Qaeda Branch Claims Package Bomb Attempts Cost $4,200

A UPS cargo plane stops on the tarmac after a suspicious package was found onboard at Philadelphia International Airport on October 29.

The Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula terrorist group is quoted as saying it's planning to continue attacks like the attempts last month to blow up package bombs on two cargo flights that were headed to the United States.

Those devices did not explode but were intercepted by security agents in Dubai and Britain.

The U.S.-based militant monitoring groups IntelCenter and the Site Intelligence Group quote the Yemeni-based group's online magazine as claiming that the bombing attempts cost $4,200.

The group says the attempts, which it calls "Operation Hemorrhage," used items like cell phones and printers stuffed with explosives.

The group says its goal is not to carry out a spectacular deadly attack on the United States, like on September 11, 2001, but to mount smaller-scale attacks which could lead to damage to the U.S. economy.

No comment on the group's claims was immediately available from U.S. officials.

compiled from agency reports