Newly released FBI interviews have revealed cleric Anwar al-Awlaki's role in grooming the 'underwear bomber'.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now 30, became known as the notorious 'underpants bomber' in 2009 after he attempted to take down a U.S. jetliner by detonating a bomb hidden in his underwear in a warped plan to carry out Islamic jihad.

The plot failed when the bomb did not detonate as planned but burst into flames, setting the jihadi alight.

Now new interview summaries, released by the FBI following a F.O.I battle by the New York Times, reveals how Awlaki - a radical, American-born Muslim cleric - groomed the would-be bomber to carry out the attack.

Newly released FBI interviews have revealed cleric Anwar al-Awlaki's (left) role in grooming the 'underwear bomber' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (right)

They describe how Abdulmutallab went from a shy son of a wealthy Nigerian, who went onto study at the University College London, to a radicalized Al Qaeda terrorist.

Abdulmutallab, who was becoming increasingly interested in religion, had first come across the cleric via a set of his lectures on sale at an Islamic bookstore in London.

A few years later, then living in Dubai, he told FBI agents that he felt 'God was guiding him to jihad.' So in 2009, he set out to the Al Queda's stronghold in Shabwah province, Yemen to try to find Awlaki.



Abdulmutallab told how the radical cleric would give him daily advice about his forthcoming mission, and once told told his student that he wished he could also carry out a 'martyrdom mission' but his role in Al Qaeda was 'to support others to become martyrs.'

Awlaki explained how 'the attack should occur on board a U.S. airliner' and had given him guidance on how to 'work through' the 'issues' of killing 300 innocent people.

The would-be bomber was able to describe his time at the secret Al Qaeda training camp in Yemen and stay at Awlaki's home in such detail that the information was likley used in the US drone strike which killed the leading propagandist and recruiter for Al Qaeda on September 30, 2011.

Awlaki was first American to be deliberately killed without an official trial or charges on the order of a president since the Civil War.

Bomb: These are the remains of the underpants with the explosive used on a failed plot to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009

Bearing arms: In this video still from a video produced by al Qaeda, a man identified by ABC News as Abdulmutallab in his training class fires a weapon at a desert camp in Yemen

His descriptions were so detailed, the US government may have even used them to target the cleric during the drone strike.

Abdulmutallab said Awlaki commanded such great respect that everyone at the camp referred to him a 'sheikh'.

THE DEVOUT CLERIC ARRESTED FOR SOLICITING PROSTITUTES Born in New Mexico in 1971, al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen but the family returned to their native Yemen in 1978. In 1991 al-Awlaki came back to America to study civil engineering at Colorado State University, then education studies at San Diego State University and later doctoral work at George Washington University in Washington. Authorities note that he was arrested in San Diego in 1996 and 1997 for soliciting prostitutes. Al-Awlaki's family is well-known in Yemen. His father is a former agriculture minister, Nasser al-Awlaki. The terrorist was a former imam of mosques in Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia. Two of those mosques were attended by some of the September 11, 2001, hijackers. In 2004 he travelled to Yemen, where he taught at a university before he was arrested and imprisoned in 2006 for suspected links to al-Qaeda and involvement in attacks. In December 2007 he was released because he said he had repented, a Yemeni security official said. But he was later charged again on similar counts and went into hiding. Last year U.S. administration authorised operations to capture or kill al-Awlaki. 'Al-Awlaki is a proven threat,' said a U.S. official at the time. 'He's being targeted.' Advertisement

Awlaki, who also introduced him to other Qaeda trainers and bomb makers, helped teach the young recruit how to prepare a martyrdom video. The videos, which were regularly prepared by terrorists before carrying out an act of jihad, were used as weapons of propaganda online.

'Keep it short and reference the Quran,' Awlaki advised him.

Awlaki also got training in how to shoot at rifle but admitted he never felt comfortable with guns.

The cleric also gave Abdulmutallab advice on how to disguise his intentions, such as traveling from Yemen to an African country before booking the flight to America so as not to arouse suspicion.

Once aboard, he offered one final piece of advice: 'Wait until you are in the U.S., then bring the plane down.'

On December 25, 2009, Abdulmutallab boarded the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam into Canada with a highly sophisticated chemical bomb hidden in his underwear. The flight and date were chosen by the jihadi himself.

Abdulmutallab made numerous trips to the bathroom where he cleansed and purified himself and prayed, all the while keeping an eye on the plane's progress.

'He purified himself. He washed. He brushed his teeth. He put on perfume. He was praying and perfuming himself to get ready to die. He was preparing to die and enter heaven,' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tuckel during his court hearing.

When the plane flew over the US border, Abdulmutallab depressed a plunger on a syringe, setting off a chemical reaction of two high explosives in his underwear.

Yet the bomb didn't work as planned. Fellow passengers described hearing a loud 'pop' and Abdulmutallab was engulfed in flames.

'There was a loud pop... smoke... a fireball... the fireball was on the defendant... he was engulfed,' the prosecutor said.

Witnesses said Abdulmutallab sat expressionless while his underwear burned as other passengers screamed in terror.

The newly released interviews real how Anwar al-Awlaki (left and right) a radical, American-born Muslim cleric - groomed the would-be bomber to carry out the attack

Michael Zantow a passenger aboard the flight who was seated one row away from Abdulmutallab said people were alarmed by the initial loud pop of the device. He said someone yelled, 'Hey man, hey dude, your pants are on fire.'

'This guy's pants is on fire,' another passenger yelled, according to Zantow.

'I never saw any reaction at all,' Zantow said about the Nigerian terrorist.

Zantow said that passengers struggled to get Abdulmutallab's seatbelt off and lifted him out of his seat and laid him down on the floor with his pants down to his knees and the device smoldering.

'It was bulky and they were burning,' Zantow said. 'It looked like my son's Pampers.'

Abdulmutallab never denied the terror charges against him and later pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

He told a court in 2011 that the bomb was a 'blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims', and issued his plea in a court outburst.

Awlaki once told Abdulmutallab that he wished he could also carry out a 'martyrdom mission' but his role in Al Qaeda was 'to support others to become martyrs.'

'The United States should be warned that if they continue to persist and promote the blasphemy of Mohammed and the prophets... the United States should await a great calamity that will befall them through the hands of the mujahedeen soon,' Abdulmutallab said.

'If you laugh with us now we will laugh with you later on the day of judgement,' he said.

Abdulmutallab, was badly burned in the incident, said he was 'guilty under U.S. law, but not under Islamic law,' and stated his belief that 'committing jihad against the United States is one of 'the most virtuous acts' a Muslim can perform.'

He was sentenced to life in jail in 2012.

During the run up to the trial, Abdulmutallab engaged in numerous interviews with the FBI.

Just a boy: In this 2001 image, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, poses with a group of fellow pupils from Lome's International School, Togo, while on a school trip to London

Smiling: Abdulmutallab, front left, poses with anti-war campaigner Brian Haw in front of Britain's Parliament with a group of fellow pupils from Lome's International School, Togo in 2001

The would-be bomber admitted trying to detonate the explosive in the name of Al Qaeda while he was still on the plane.

He then clammed up for a few weeks but began being cooperative again with the persuasion of the FBI who flew Abdulmutallab's relatives to the United States to encourage him to talk.

Abdulmutallab told the agents that nothing could have stopped him from carrying out the attach - except from an order from Awlaki himself.

Even revelations that Awlaki had been frequenting prostitutes did not take away his stature in his eyes. When the FBI first told him the news, he said they were lies. If true, the cleric's work for Al Qaeda would 'outweigh' his sins.

The FBI resisted making those interviews public but this week, a federal judge turned over the 200 pages of evidence to the Times following their FOI request.