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American security officials are on the lookout for a new type of explosive, after the CIA intercepted an upgraded 'underwear bomb' following a sting operation in Yemen earlier this year. Addressing an audience at the Aspen Security Forum, Transportation Security Administrator (TSA) John Pistole said that the device smuggled out by a double-agent in the operation was an upgrade to the underwear bomb carried by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner which was on route from Amsterdam on Christmas 2009. "We found in the Underwear Plot, Part 2...that a different type of explosive had been used than the previous one. So, we have gone back and recalibrated all the equipment and we have been working with our canine to detect this different type of explosive," CBS News quoted Pistole, as saying. Abdulmutallab, who was one of the 300 people were on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, at his trial referred the underwear bomb as a "blessed weapon" to avenge poorly treated Muslims. According to the report, the CIA intercepted the device earlier this year, thwarting an ambitious plot by the al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. The device was made of the same explosive material PETN that is normally used in Al Qaeda bombs, which would not be detected by airport metal detectors, the report said. However, an ex-TSA administrator claimed that the full body scanners would have detected the device.

US to sniff out upgraded Qaeda underwear bomb