From fresh-faced schoolboy to jihad warrior: Underpants bomber pictured in Al Qaeda training camp

• Pleaded guilty on Wednesday to attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing
• Plea comes 12 days after his mentor Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric was killed by the U.S. in Yemen

He looked fresh-faced and innocent in a school photo taken in 2001, but little did his classmates know years later Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would attempt to take down a U.S. jetliner in his warped plan to carry out Islamic jihad.
Appearing a starkly different man, Abdulmutallab is later filmed bearing arms at an al Qaeda training camp - his expression hardened, his arms cradling a firearm, soon to seek out martyrdom.
The Nigerian-born 25-year-old would soon become infamous as the 'underpants bomber' - who pleaded guilty on Wednesday to eight charges in connection to his attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing of an airplane over Detroit.

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

Just a boy: In this 2001 image, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now 25, 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

Abdulmutallab, a well-educated son of a wealthy banker, had told investigators he trained in Yemen, which is home base for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He said he targeted a U.S.-bound flight at the urging of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. military in Yemen and wanted to become a martyr when he boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in Amsterdam.

Abdulmutallab, who told the judge he is 25, said he carried a bomb in his underwear onto the plane with the intention of killing the nearly 300 people on board. The bomb didn't work, and passengers jumped on Abdulmutallab when they saw smoke and fire.

Admission: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty on Wednesday to eight charges in connection to his attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing of an airplane over Detroit

Back at home: Unidentified men walk in front of the house of Alhaji Umar Abdul Mutallab, the father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the alleged Christmas Day terrorist, in Funtua, Katsina state, Nigeria, in December, 2009

But eight years before the flight, Abdulmutallab appears to look like an an average teenager, even smiling as he 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.

Death: Anwar al-Awlaki - a source of inspiration for Abdulmutallab - was killed 12 days ago in a drone strike in Yemen

A decade later, Abdulmutallab, who has never denied the accusations against him, calmly answered questions from U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds before pleading guilty to all eight charges he faced, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
On Wednesday, he told the court that the underwear bomb was a 'blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims', and issued his plea in a court outburst.
'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 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.'
Prior to his admission, prosecutors' evidence was stacked high.
Abdulmutallab was badly burned in a plane full of witnesses.
The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al Qaeda and directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. in Yemen.

Case: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, left, listens as Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel presents opening arguments in U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds today

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

There were also photos of his scorched shorts as well as video of Abdulmutallab explaining his suicide mission before departing for the U.S.
In September 2010, Abdulmutallab suggested he wanted to plead guilty to some charges. But he didn't, and instead dropped his four-lawyer, publicly financed defense team and decided to represent himself. He said relying on others wasn't in his best interest.

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.'

His lawyers at the time said they had talked to prosecutors about a possible plea deal. Abdulmutallab had asked the judge what he needed to do to plead guilty to some charges.
She referred him to Chambers.
Passenger Lori Haskell, 34, of Newport, watched Abdulmutallab's plea in an overflow room Wednesday. She called his statement in court 'chilling,' but not surprising.
'I'm just really relieved that it's done with,' Haskell said.
The court heard yesterday dramatic details of how passengers screamed in terror at the young Nigerian accused of attempting to detonate a bomb in his underwear to bring down a jetliner.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tuckel described Umar Farouk Abdulmattab as an alleged al Qaeda member who calmly attempted to blow up the plane and then sat expressionless while his underwear burned because he had fully accepted his mission of martyrdom.
Meanwhile, shocked passengers aboard the Christmas 2009 Northwest Airlines Flight 253 shouted at him, 'Your pants are on fire!'
His mission, his goal, was to blow it up,' Mr Tuckel said during his opening statement at the trial in U.S. District Court. 'It had to be blown up over U.S. soil.'
'There was a loud pop... smoke... a fireball... the fireball was on the defendant... he was engulfed,' the prosecutor said.
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.
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.

Decision: Judge Nancy Edmunds listens to Opening arguments in the trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He has now pleaded guilty to charges relating to the attempted terror attack

Plea: In this courtroom drawing, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab appears in court accused of trying to bring down a jetliner

'It was bulky and they were burning,' Zantow said. 'It looked like my son’s Pampers.'
Zantow echoed Tuckel’s statement in his opening arguments that Abdulmutallab sat expressionless as he was enveloped by the flames.
'I never saw any reaction at all,' Zantow said about the 24-year-old Nigerian who faces terrorism charges for the attempted bombing and conspiracy allegedly organized by Al Qaeda.
Abdulmutallab made numerous trips to the bathroom and prayed and went through rituals before allegedly depressing a plunger on a syringe, setting off a chemical reaction of two high explosives, Tuckel said.
In the plane's bathroom, 'he was engaging in rituals. He was preparing to die and enter heaven,' Tukel said.
'He purified himself. He washed. He brushed his teeth. He put on perfume. He was praying and perfuming himself to get ready to die.'
After returning to his seat, Abdulmutallab pushed a small plunger on the chemical bomb in his underwear, an action that produced the 'pop,' the prosecutor told jurors.
The bomb didn't work as planned but Abdulmutallab was engulfed in flames, said Tukel, who displayed the flight's seating chart on a screen to show jurors where things happened on the plane.
Abdulmutallab, whose handcuffs were removed before the jury was seated, sat quietly watching the proceedings wearing a gray and yellow dashiki and a skullcap.
His sentencing is scheduled for January 12.