The United States has said it has has foiled a plot by Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen to blow up a US-bound passenger jet with a new take on the "underwear bomb" near the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death.

Here is a chronology of activities linked to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula:

1992

- Dec 12: Bombers strike a hotel which formerly housed US marines in the southern port of Aden, the first known Al-Qaeda attack in Yemen. Two non-American citizens killed.

1996

- June 25: In Saudi Arabia, a truck bomb kills 19 American soldiers and injures hundreds of others.

2000

- Oct 12: 17 US military personnel killed in an Al-Qaeda suicide attack on the USS Cole destroyer at Aden port.

2002

- Oct 6: The French tanker Limburg is damaged by a bomb-laden boat in the southeast port of Ash-Shir, killing a Bulgarian sailor. Al-Qaeda claims responsibility.

2003

- May 12: At least 35 people were killed in coordinated attacks on three compounds housing foreigners in Riyadh.

2007

- July 2: Eight Spanish tourists and two local drivers killed by a car bomb at a historic site in Marib in east Yemen.

2008

- Sept 17: 19 people are killed, including seven attackers, in a double car bomb attack outside the US embassy in Sanaa.

2009

- Jan: Saudi and Yemeni Al-Qaeda branches announce they have merged to form the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

- Dec 25: Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tries to explode a bomb on a Detroit-bound US airliner in a plot claimed by AQAP on December 28.

2010

- August 20-25: The Yemeni army retakes control of Loder in south Yemen after fighting with forces linked to Al-Qaeda.

- Nov 5: AQAP claims responsibility for a plot to send parcel bombs to the United States and for the September downing of a UPS cargo plane.

2011

- May 29: Hundreds of suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen wrest control of the south Yemen city of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, and move on to extend their control to other parts of the province and neighbouring Shabwa province. Zinjibar remains in Al-Qaeda's hands.

- July 26: AQAP chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi reaffirms his group's backing for Ayman al-Zawahiri as Al-Qaeda's new leader.

- Sept 30: US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, a prominent Al-Qaeda chief, is killed in Yemen in a US air raid.

2012

- Jan 16: Al-Qaeda overruns the town of Rada, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of Sanaa, after consolidating its presence in the south and the east. It bows to tribal pressure nine days later and withdraws from the town.

- Feb 25: A suicide attack on a presidential palace in southeast Yemen kills 26 Republican Guards, on the same day that Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi takes the oath as president. Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the attack on February 29.

- March 4: 185 soldiers and 25 attackers are killed in clashes with Al-Qaeda gunmen after the extremists attacked army posts on the outskirts of Zinjibar, in what is one of the single deadliest attacks on Yemeni troops.

- - May 6: An Al-Qaeda leader, Fahd al-Quso, wanted in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole, killed in an air strike in eastern Yemen. Jihadists launch attacks a day later on two army posts outside Zinjibar, killing at least 22 soldiers to avenge his death.

- May 8: The United States says it has foiled a plot by Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen to blow up a US-bound passenger jet.