Flight Ban On Laptops 'sparked by IS threat'
Britain will join the US in placing new restrictions on inbound flights from the Middle East, a reflection on how just about anything with power can be turned into an explosive.
Last February, a Somali man boarded a Daallo Airlines flight in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. Twenty minutes after the flight took off, the unassuming laptop in his carry-on bag detonated, blowing a hole in the side of the plane.
The bomber was killed, and two others were injured. But if the aircraft had reached cruising altitude, the bomb would have ignited the plane’s fuel tank and caused a second, potentially catastrophic blast.
The Daallo explosion was one of a handful of terrorist attacks that the Department of Homeland Security cited to help explain why it introduced new rules for some passengers flying to the US with electronics. Starting recently, travelers on US-bound flights from 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa will be required to check all electronic items larger than a smartphone.
A senior US administration official told reporters that the indefinite electronics ban was a response to continuing threats against civil aviation, but wouldn’t elaborate on the specific nature or the timing of the threat.
Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the ban was “necessary and proportional to the threat,” and that terrorists continue to come up with “creative ways to try and outsmart detection methods.”
The ban could be focused on simply separating items like laptop-bombs from passengers who would need to access them in order to set them off.
Electronics Has Made Smuggling Bombs Easier
This aircraft cabin ban on large electronic devices was prompted by intelligence suggesting a terror threat to US-bound flights.
The so-called Islamic State group (IS) has been working on ways to smuggle explosives on to planes by hiding them in electronics. The tip-off was judged by the US to be "substantiated" and "credible".
Inbound flights on nine airlines operating out of 10 airports in eight countries are subject to the US Department of Homeland Security ban.
Phones and medical devices are not affected.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hosted a two-day meeting of ministers and senior officials from 68 nations to discuss the threat from IS. The Washington talks is the first full meeting of the coalition since December 2014.
This will be a chance for the Trump administration to put its stamp on the global battle against the Islamic State group, and for the reticent secretary of state to put his stamp on a foreign policy issue that the president has identified as a priority. The State Department says the meeting aims to accelerate efforts to defeat IS in its remaining strongholds in the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa.
On the campaign trail Mr Trump claimed to have a secret plan to obliterate the group. But his Pentagon has largely stuck with Barack Obama's strategy of supporting local ground forces, albeit with increased US military participation as the assault on Raqqa nears.
Coalition members will also discuss how to stabilise and govern the cities after the conflict; and they're looking to see if Washington remains committed to a longer term effort to secure the region.
Eric Swalwell, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News there was "a new aviation threat".
"We know that our adversaries, terrorist groups in the United States and outside the United States, seek to bring down a US-bound airliner. That's one of their highest value targets. And we're doing everything we can right now to prevent that from happening."
BBC: DefenseOne:
Why Hasn't MH370 Been Found?:
Four Threats To Aviation Security – and Four Responses:
