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Aus airline a terror target
10/08/2003 08:33 - (SA)
Sydney - Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday warned that Australia's national airline Qantas is a potential target for terrorists with heat-seeking ground-to-air missiles.
Howard told Australia's Channel 9 TV that all Western embassies in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and places where Westerners gather in Indonesia were also possible terrorist targets.
His comments came after a blast in Jakarta's Marriott Hotel on Tuesday, which killed 10 people and injured 146.
Howard said concerns in the United States and Britain about possible terrorist attacks on commercial airlines prompted Australian authorities to launch intelligence-sharing talks with London, focusing on Qantas flights in and out of London's Heathrow airport.
"That's one of the things we're constantly in touch with the British about," Howard said. He didn't disclose further details about the concerns.
No one at the airline was immediately available for comment. Qantas flies to Heathrow about 20 times a week.
The United States issued fresh predictions of more terrorist attacks in the Asia-Pacific region following the Marriott blast. Howard has not ruled out the possibility of attacks on Australian soil.
Authorities believe regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah was behind the blast. The group has also been blamed for last October's Bali bombs that killed 202 people, including many Australian tourists.
Last November, suspected terrorists fired two surface-to-air missiles at a plane full of Israeli vacationers in Mombasa, Kenya. The missiles missed, and no one was injured in that attack.
- AP
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