Dubai: Security is being tightened in airports across Europe and the Middle East with direct air flights to US destinations after intelligence reports from Washington’s agencies suggest that terrorists are plotting a new series of attacks on aviation targets.
The heightened security comes as US officials raised fears about militants in Syria and Yemen developing new forms of explosives that could be smuggled on to planes and that might pass the current set of tight security checks that were previously in place.
Officials in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity suggested that footwear and personal electronics such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and video game consoles would be subjected to extra scrutiny as a result of the intelligence reports.
Late on Wednesday night, the UK’s Department for Transport said it would “step up some of our aviation security measures” following the warning from US security chiefs.
The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said: “We constantly keep the whole issue of aviation under constant review along with our international partners and also the aviation industry and obviously we have acted on advice and information that we have received.
“I would like to reassure the travelling public that we have one of the toughest security regimes in the world, along with the US.
“It’s very important that we take these measures to protect the travelling public and to ensure the travelling public have confidence that when we get information, we take the right measures and hopefully those right measures will reassure the public in their travels.”
Asked about delays to passengers, McLoughlin replied: “I hope it won’t delay them that much. There have to be extra checks made but those will be made in the course of events going through the security that people already go through, which are fairly stringent as it is.
“I hope there will not be significant delays. Obviously we will work with the airports to try and make sure that is not the case, so that people who are going on business or going away on holiday get away on time.”
US officials told Reuters that security at European airports would be increased following intelligence that Al Qaida operatives in Syria and Yemen had joined forces to develop bombs that could avoid detection and bring down aircraft.
The US did not specify which airports or countries would be affected, nor did it say what triggered the extra precautions.
It is thought that the extra measures at UK airports could include increased random screening of passengers and tighter scrutiny of footwear, mobile phones and computers.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said he hoped disruption at airport security would be minimal.
He said: “It’s very important that we work — as we do — with our American partners and indeed with other countries around the world so that where credible new threats are identified a response is then implemented in airports around the world.
“We will play our part as will other countries to make sure where security checks can be tightened up, they will be.
“The hope is that the majority of travellers will not be unduly disrupted but I hope also that people will understand that we have to work together across the world to deal with people who want to inflict harm.”
The US Department of Homeland Security said enhanced security measures would be implemented in the next few days at “certain overseas airports with direct flights into the United States”.
The department secretary, Jeh Johnson, said: “We are sharing recent and relevant information with our foreign allies and are consulting the aviation industry.”
US intelligence believes extremists in Syria and Yemen have been in contact to develop bombs that escape heightened security measures, although they do not have specific intelligence about an imminent attack or specific plot emanating from the suspected collaboration.
Some in the US intelligence community also believe that training complexes have been set up in Syria for western jihadists so they can return to their home countries better trained to carry out attacks.
While that conclusion is the subject of debate, it shows the level of fear counterterrorism officials have about the threat posed by violent jihadists from Syria now considered to be the main one facing the west.
Intelligence is reported to suggest bomb makers from Yemen-based Al Qaida in the Arabian peninsula (AQAP) have travelled to Syria to meet Al Qaida-affiliated Jabhat Al Nusra to work on ways to get an explosive device past existing security.
AQAP was behind two failed plots that evaded aviation security. One was the underpants bomb over the US in December 2009, where the device did not explode fully. The other was the two ink cartridge bombs hidden on separate cargo planes that were aimed to detonate over the eastern US in October 2010. In that plot the concealment of the devices was so innovative it initially escaped detection by experienced bomb experts, but they were discovered at en route stopovers following an intelligence tipoff.
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, Al Qaida-inspired terrorists have developed plots that have exploited weaknesses in aviation security. The largest was the liquid bomb plot broken in 2006, based in the UK.
Security experts said the heightened security measures did not necessarily mean the US was acting on intelligence of a specific bomb plot.
The independent aviation analyst Chris Yates said: “You could argue that this being Independence Day weekend in the States everybody is going to be on tenterhooks and watching carefully. This could be an example of someone at the department for homeland security watching carefully and putting two and two together and coming up with five.”
Yates said he would be surprised if the heightened security did not lead to delays for passengers flying to the US from busy British airports. He said: “They say the measures shouldn’t impact on travel but take Heathrow, with multiple flights a day to the US, and the likelihood is this could end up causing a backlog.”
Information suggesting increased threats can be wrong and is the subject of debate among intelligence officials.
Intelligence in 2010 about a feared Mumbai-style gun and bomb plot against an unspecified European target led to a retooling in the UK of the police’s planned response to an armed attack and extra resources being deployed. Some with close knowledge of the debates at the time now believe the intelligence was mistaken or incorrectly analysed.
A spokesman for Heathrow Airport in London declined to comment on the new security measures. British Airways could not be reached for comment. A Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said: “We don’t comment on operational security matters.”
— Compiled from agencies
