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Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is promising more small-scale attacks like its attempts to bomb two United States-bound cargo planes, which it likens to bleeding its enemy to death by a thousand cuts, in a special edition of the Yemeni-based group's English online magazine, Inspire.

The editors boast that what they call Operation Hemorrhage was cheap, and easy, using common items that together with shipping, costing only $4,200 to carry out.

Alerted to the late October bomb plot by Saudi intelligence, security officials chased the packages across five countries, trying frantically over the next two days to prevent an explosion that could have come at any moment. The pursuit showed that even when the world's counter-terrorism systems work, preventing an attack is often a terrifyingly close ordeal.

The group says it's part of a new strategy to replace spectacular attacks in favor of smaller attacks to hit the US economy, according to the special edition of the online magazine, made available by both Ben Venzke's IntelCenter, and the SITE Intelligence Group.

"To bring down America we do not need to strike big," the editors write. With the "security phobia that is sweeping America, it is more feasible to stage smaller attacks that involve less players and less time to launch" thereby circumventing US security, they conclude.

In the magazine, an author identified as the group's head of foreign operations says the package attacks were intended to cause economic harm, not casualties. "We knew that cargo planes are staffed by only a pilot and a co-pilot," the author writes, "so our objective was not to cause maximum casualties but to cause maximum losses to the American economy," by striking at the multi-billion dollar US freight industry.

The al-Qaida offshoot insists it also brought down a UPS cargo plane in Dubai in September, in addition to the Oct 29 attempts to bring down a FedEx plane, and a UPS plane bound for the US But US officials insist the Dubai crash was an accident caused by a battery fire, not terrorism.

The editors' boast that they chose printer cartridges in which to hide the explosive because toner is carbon-based, with an undetectable molecular composition.

Questions:

1. What is the name of the magazine?

2. What name did they editor’s give the operation?

3. How much did the cargo bombs cost?

Answers:

1. Inspire.

2. Operation Hemorrhage.

3. $4,200.

About the broadcaster:

Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.