An al Qaeda bombmaker who was behind the failed attempt to down a jet airliner on Christmas Day 2009 was killed two years ago by US forces, the White House announced Thursday.

“This will confirm for the first time that Ibrahim al-Asiri, a senior al Qaeda bomb maker and terrorist coordinator, was killed two years ago in a United States counterterrorism operation in Yemen,” the statement said.

The White House said al-Asiri was also responsible for a disrupted printer cartridge bomb plot in 2010 that sought to blow up a cargo plane over the eastern US.

“He also built an explosive device intended to be used against a passenger aircraft in 2012, and the device used in the attempted assassination of the former Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” the White House said.

President Trump said his death is a blow to the terror group.

“Al-Asiri’s death significantly handicapped al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The United States will continue to hunt down terrorists like al-Asiri until they no longer pose a threat to our great Nation,” he said in the statement.

Earlier reports said al-Asiri was killed in a drone strike in Yemen.