JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia's anti-terror squad arrested 11 people suspected of planning a range of attacks on domestic and foreign targets including the U.S. Embassy and a site near the Australian Embassy, police said Saturday. 

The suspects were arrested in raids Friday and Saturday in four provinces, national police spokesman Maj. Gen. Suhardi Alius said.

He said the suspects belonged to a new group called the Harakah Sunni for Indonesian Society, or HASMI.

"From evidence found at the scene, we believe that this group was well prepared for serious terror attacks," Alius said.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told NBC News, "We have seen the reports, but cannot comment as this is an ongoing Indonesian security investigation."

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Police seized a number of bombs, explosive materials, a bomb-making manual and ammunition, Alius said. They also found a 3-kilogram (6.6-pound) gas cylinder filled with highly explosive material, which had been assembled at a house in the East Java town of Madiun. Videos and images of attacks on Muslims in various parts of the world were also recovered, he said. 

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Alius said the group planned to target the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and a plaza near the Australian Embassy and the local office of U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan. It also planned to attack the U.S. Consulate in Surabaya and the headquarters of a special police force in Central Java, he said.

It was unclear how far the plans had advanced.

Alius said police are still investigating whether the group has ties with established terrorist organizations such as Jemaah Islamiyah. An investigator who spoke in condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide information to the media said HASMI's apparent leader, Abu Hanifah, was a Jemaah Islamiyah sympathizer.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, has been battling terrorists since the 2002 bombings in Bali by militants linked to Jemaah Islamiyah which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Subsequent attacks have claimed more than 50 people, mostly Indonesians. The government has arrested more than 700 suspected terrorists and killed dozens more in an attempt to root out militants.

Earlier this month, police warned of a terrorist threat in Bali targeting a ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the bombings. The country's security alert was raised to its highest level.

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Last month, police arrested 10 Islamist militants and seized a dozen homemade bombs from a group suspected of planning suicide attacks against security forces and plotting to blow up the Parliament building. The alleged bomb maker turned himself in to police while wearing an empty suicide vest.

Recent terror attacks in the country have been carried out by individuals or small groups and have targeted security forces and local "infidels" instead of Westerners, with less deadly results. The arrests announced Saturday appear to be the first in recent years to involve a group that allegedly planned to target foreign facilities. 

NBC's Catherine Chomiak contributed to this report. 

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Updated at 8:01 a.m. ET -- An insider who worked with the United States and an allied security service to thwart an al-Qaida bomb plot hatched in Yemen was the man picked to carry out the suicide attack on a U.S.-bound airliner, U.S. and Yemeni officials tell NBC News.

An unidentified Yemeni  government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the supposed suicide bomber was working for Western intelligence “from day one.”

The insider also provided information that allowed the U.S. to launch a Predator drone strike that killed the group’s operations chief, senior U.S. officials told NBC News earlier Tuesday.

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"It was managed so that it was not a threat," said one senior Obama administration official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity. “We were confident that we had inside control over any plot that might have been associated with this device.

 

 

“The device never got near an airplane. To our knowledge, it never got near an airplane or airport.”

The bomb -- a refined version of an “underwear bomb” used in two previous failed terror plots -- was driven out of Yemen by the insider into Saudi Arabia. It is now in the hands of U.S. bomb experts at the FBI labs in Quantico, Va., where experts have been examining it for a week, the officials said. The infiltrator also is safely out of Yemen.

The officials also said that a successful Predator attack that killed Fahd al-Quso over the weekend was related to the plot and was a “part of a 1-2 blow against Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” the north African affiliate of the al-Qaida terrorist network.  Al Quso, described as director of external operations at AQAP, was “involved (in the bomb plot) in an intimate fashion,” said the senior administration official. 

The officials declined to identify the allied security service involved in penetrating the plot, but multiple U.S. sources told NBC News that British intelligence was "heavily involved" in shutting down the plot. Separately, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said that multiple friendly security services were involved in the operation. 

The plot, which U.S. officials described Monday as a plan to detonate aboard a U.S.-bound jetliner a refined version of the “underwear bomb” that failed to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009. That device, worn by convicted bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, did not detonate.

The bomb aboard Northwest Flight 253 was the second failure of such a device. Four months prior, a suicide bomber attempted to kill Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul Azizbin, director of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism program, at his palace in Jeddah. The bomber died in the attack, but the prince only suffered burns to one hand.

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The new bomb had a more refined detonation mechanism and was "totally non-metallic," which officials told NBC News would have made it more difficult to detect by traditional security screening processes.

The senior administration official would not comment on whether the would-be bomber, who is believed to be a Yemeni national, was in custody, but did say, “We do not believe the intended user of the device poses a threat."

The official also disputed reports indicating that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula sought to detonate the bomb around the anniversary of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden’s death, saying, “They hoped it would be carried out this month, but (there is) nothing from our insight that it was to coincide with anniversary or in retaliation for OBL’s death.”

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Updated at 5 p.m. ET: The CIA foiled a plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner this month, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.

Officials said the plot involved a bomb that improved on the one that had been sewn into the underpants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who failed in a plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009. That device did not detonate.

This bomb had a more refined detonation mechanism and was "totally non-metallic," which officials told NBC News would have made it more difficult to detect by traditional screening processes.

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A U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News there were “refinements on reliability” in particular that made this bomb more sophisticated and more likely to explode.

In addition to being a threat to commercial planes, the official said this type of bomb could be used in crowded places, on other transportation systems or for assassinations.

The official noted that the bomb “was never near a plane” and “never posed a risk.” The plot was disrupted well before it threatened Americans or U.S. allies, the official added.

The U.S. received the device last month. The FBI is currently conducting technical and forensics analyses on it. 

The official would not specify which international security service provided the intelligence that led to the unraveling of the plot, as there is concern about retaliatory attacks against U.S. targets inside Yemen.

Counterterror officials deem the thwarted plot a "success story," NBC News reported. The FBI said in a statement that the successful operation was the "result of close cooperation with our security and intelligence partners overseas."

Related: More than 30 Yemeni troops killed in militant attack

According to The Associated Press, the would-be suicide bomber was instructed to buy a ticket on the airliner of his choosing and decide the timing of the attack.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, said the individual is not a threat but would not say where he is located. He did not provide information about the individual’s nationality or age.

It's unclear who built the bomb, but the device does bear similarities to other explosive devices built by master bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri. However, Asiri may not have been directly involved in this plot. 

Related: Reports: Al-Qaida leader wanted in USS Cole bombing killed in Yemen airstrike

According to one official, there is "evidence that Asiri has passed along his bomb-making knowledge to others." The official would not say whether Asiri or an apprentice were involved in this plot.

In an exclusive meeting, a senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that Asiri posed the single most dangerous threat to the United States. 

According to the official, Asiri is the most capable of carrying out al-Qaida’s threat to launch a significant terrorist attack to kill Americans inside the United States.

Asiri designed the first underwear bomb that failed over Detroit and he was also the maker of the printer ink cartridge bombs that were discovered before they were shipped to the United States.

The senior official said counter-terrorism officials were seriously troubled by the ink cartridge bombs because they were "particularly sophisticated."

Related: Al-Qaida kidnapped Iranian envoy in bid to free bin Laden kin, colleagues
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Related: Bin Laden in hiding: Hatching horrific plots despite crippling attacks on al-Qaida

Asiri has also implanted a bomb inside his brother in a failed attempt to assassinate Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi deputy interior minister. The minister survived, but Asiri’s brother did not.

Asiri is not just a bomb maker but has also taken to “training the trainers,” sharing his skills with others. Officials believe he is responsible for this bomb, the one sewn into Abdulmutallab’s underwear and the one used during the attempted assassination attempt of Nayef. As director of Saudi counterterrorism, Nayef is one of the United States’ most trusted allies in the fight against al-Qaida.

For each bomb, officials are seeing a new level of refinement and sophistication.

The U.S. counterterrorism official said the thwarted attack and the recent drone death of Fahd al-Quso, an FBI “most-wanted terrorist,” was a “one-two body blow” to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have recently described as the most aggressive of the al-Qaida franchises. 

They also believe that al-Quso, director of external communications for the franchise, would have had to approve the planned May attack.

Officials also say the plot had no apparent ties to the anniversary of the killing of bin Laden. One official told NBC News the timing was coincidental.

A White House statement said President Obama was told of the plot in April. 

"The disruption of this IED (improvised explosive device) plot underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism here and abroad," the statement read.

Reporting by NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski and Robert Windrem and The Associated Press is included in this report. 

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A Maryland honor student who hoped to attend Johns Hopkins University on a full scholarship instead pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to help a Pennsylvania woman known as "Jihad Jane" plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had offended Muslims.

Mohammed Hassan Khalid, 18, is believed to be the youngest person ever charged with terrorism in a U.S. civilian court.

During a short hearing at the federal courthouse in Philadelphia, Khalid pleaded guilty to a single charge of providing material support to terrorists, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Khalid faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced. No sentencing date has been set.

Khalid, who moved with his family from Pakistan to suburban Baltimore in 2008, had been accepted on a full scholarship at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, according to the Daily News.

 

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"This is the saddest case I've ever been involved with in my career," the Daily News quoted Khalid's lawyer, Jeffrey Lindy, as saying. "He's a smart kid who understands what's happening. But how much can an 18-year-old brain comprehend about a life-altering experience like this?"

 

According to filings by U.S. prosecutors, Khalid began communicating online with fellow jihadists in the United States, Ireland and South Asia as early as age 15.

One of them was Colleen R. LaRose, the suburban Philadelphia woman who called herself "Jihad Jane." LaRose pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. The artist had offended some Muslims by drawing a cartoon with the head of the prophet Mohammed on a dog's body.

U.S. officials have said the "Jihad Jane" case is unusual because it involves a green-eyed, blonde American woman who boasted that her appearance and U.S. passport allowed her to conduct terror activities without drawing suspicion.

"Today's plea, which involved a radicalized teen in Maryland who connected with like-minded individuals around the globe via the Internet, underscores the evolving nature of violent extremism today," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco.

'Black Flag'
Khalid helped LaRose raise money and recruit other conspirators online "to wage violent jihad in and around Europe," U.S. officials said. In addition, Khalid helped LaRose hide a stolen U.S. passport and, officials said, hoped "he could personally provide it to the mujahideen."

Khalid also communicated with one of the plot's alleged leaders, Ali Charaf Damache, an Algerian living in Ireland. Damache, who used the alias "Black Flag," is charged with conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists. He was arrested in 2010 in Ireland on an unrelated charge and the United States is seeking to extradite him on the American terror charges.

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, in a July 2009 email cited in the indictment Khalid told LaRose: "I have waited for this ‘donation’ moment for so long and I want to make sure that everything is true so that the money reaches ... the hands of brothers who are true to their intentions and are REAL mujahids (fighters engaged in violent jihad) not some fbi hungry agents ...”

LaRose was arrested in October 2009, shortly after returning from a visit to meet Damache in Ireland.

The FBI arrested Khalid in July, when he was still a juvenile, but the case was not unsealed until September, when he turned 18. Under the plea agreement, he faces adult charges.

In a statement, Zane Memeger, the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, highlighted Khalid's youth.

"This case has demonstrated that age is not a limiter to threats to our nation's security," Memeger said. "Regardless of a defendant's age or background, we are committed to keeping our communities and our country safe through the investigation and prosecution of violent extremist activity."

Khalid was a legal U.S. resident but, unlike his siblings and parents, he did not become a naturalized American citizen. As a result, Lindy said, Khalid is likely to be deported back to Pakistan after he finishes serving his U.S. sentence.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Osama bin Laden told his followers to work on a plan to kill Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus by attacking their aircraft, according to documents found in the slain terror leader’s compound, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The Post said that it had been given an exclusive look at “some of these remarkable documents,” which it said had been declassified and would be made public soon.

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Administration officials told the Post that the plot to kill Obama and Petraeus had not reached the stage where it was a serious threat. The Post said it was “probably bluster,” but was a "chilling reminder" of the scale of bin Laden's ambition.

“The reason for concentrating on them,” bin Laden told an al-Qaida officer, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, according to the Post report, “is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make (Vice President Joe) Biden take over the presidency. … Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour… and killing him would alter the (Afghan) war’s path.”

Bin Laden: Al-Qaida has image problem
Bin Laden also told Atiyah to concentrate “every effort that could be spent on attacks in America,” and to “ask the brothers in all regions if they have a brother … who can operate in the U.S. [He should be able to] live there, or it should be easy for him to travel there,” the Post report said.

The documents also show bin Laden was worried about al-Qaida’s image – to the point that he thought it should change its name.

The Post said bin Laden believed his terror network had a brand problem because U.S. officials “have largely stopped using the phrase ‘the war on terror’ in the context of not wanting to provoke Muslims,” instead talking about the war against al-Qaida.

He suggested 10 alternatives, the paper reported, with one being “Taifat al-tawhid wal-jihad,” or Monotheism and Jihad Group.

Bin Laden also described the killing of Muslims by al-Qaida as “mistakes” and “miscalculations” and said ever local leader should be told to avoid “unnecessary civilian casualties.”

The 54-year-old terror leader was killed by a U.S. raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2 last year.

He had lived there since mid-2005 with his three wives, eight children, five grandchildren and others, making a total of 28 people. His 24-year-old son Khaled was also killed in the raid.

Pakistan intelligence officials and an al-Qaida member said there were concerns about his mental health before his death, according to Brig. Shaukat Qadir, a retired Pakistani army officer who spent months researching the events surrounding bin Laden's death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 9:25 a.m. ET: MOSCOW -- Security forces have uncovered a plot to assassinate Russia's Vladimir Putin and have arrested suspects linked to a Chechen rebel leader known for other terror attacks, Russian state television reported Monday.

Pro-government Channel One said that the suspects were plotting to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after the March 4 presidential election, in which he is all but certain to reclaim the presidency.

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The report, which included televised confessions by two suspects, is likely to boost support for Putin as he seeks his third term as president in an election Sunday.

Channel One said the suspects were acting on instructions from Chechen warlord Doku Umarov and had been arrested in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa after an accidental explosion Jan. 4 while they were trying to manufacture explosives at a rented apartment.

Amanda Walker, Moscow correspondent for Britain's Sky News, pointed out that Channel One was a "staunch Putin supporter."

 

The Ukrainian Security Service said earlier this month it had detained a man sought by Russian authorities on charges of terrorism and two of his accomplices in Odessa on Feb. 4, but said nothing at the time about them being linked to an anti-Putin plot.

Its spokeswoman, Marina Ostapenko, said Monday the announcement in Moscow came only now because the Russian special service was conducting its own investigation. She confirmed the main suspect was involved in a plot to kill Putin, but didn't elaborate.

There was no immediate explanation for the different number of suspects cited by Russia and Ukraine.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the report to the ITAR-Tass news agency, but refused to make any further comment.

A laidback Yankee in trouble in Putin's court

Channel One said two of the alleged members of the group arrived in Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey with instructions from Umarov, the top military leader for the Chechen rebels. One of them, a Chechen, was killed during the accidental explosion in Odessa and another one, Kazakhstan citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was wounded in the blast and arrested.

Pyanzin led the investigators to their contact in Odessa, Adam Osmayev, a Chechen who previously had lived in London and had been sought by Russia since 2007, the report said. The TV station showed footage of Osmayev's arrest in Odessa with black-clad special troops bursting in and a half-naked, bloodied Osmayev on his knees, his head bowed down.

Speaking to Channel One from custody in Ukraine, Osmayev described the group's mission: "Our goal was to go to Moscow and try to kill Prime Minister Putin ... Our deadline was after the Russian presidential election."

Both of Osmayev's hands were bandaged, and his face was covered in green dots from an antiseptic used to treat his cuts.

Russians rally for Putin -- and 2 days off work

Russian and Ukrainian special services wouldn't comment on the report.

The report is likely to boost support for Putin as he seeks his third term as president in an election Sunday.

But some Russians reacted to the news with skepticism, making clear on social network sites that they did not believe the report or suggesting the timing of the announcement was intended to attract sympathy for Putin before the election.

Opinion polls show Putin, a former KGB officer who crushed separatists during a war he launched in the Chechnya region in the North Caucasus before he became president, will easily win the election and reclaim the post he held from 2000 until 2008.

But he faces a growing opposition protest movement and wants to secure outright victory on Sunday, averting a runoff that might dent his authority.

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The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.