Bomb plot UK's 9/11?
2006-08-11 07:30
London - Air travellers around the globe faced delays on Friday after Britain said it had thwarted a plot to wreak "mass murder" by simultaneous mid-air bombings, triggering heightened security measures.
Some 24 people were arrested in pre-dawn raids on Thursday, most of them in London and surrounding areas, over the alleged plot to smuggle in hand baggage seemingly innocuous liquids onto planes bound for the United States that would be assembled into bombs.
Britain raised its security alert to "critical" - the highest of five levels - and imposed severe restrictions on what passengers are allowed to bring into plane cabins.
US officials said the plot to was the most serious since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and could have killed thousands, and also raised the threat level for air travel.
600 British flights cancelled
The tighter screening of passengers caused delays, forcing many airlines to cancel flights.
More than 600 British flights were cancelled, airports operator BAA told AFP.
The airline information company OAG told The Guardian that around 400 000 people in Britain had been affected by the ensuing chaos.
Many passengers using London's Heathrow airport as a transit point were told that they would have to wait until the weekend, or even the beginning of next week, before they would be able to catch connecting flights.
Up to 10 planes targeted
US officials estimated that up to 10 planes were targeted in an operation they said bore the imprint of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Britain's domestic Press Association quoted senior police sources as saying they believed up to nine planes were to have been blown up in a simultaneous attack. Other British media said from five to 12 planes were to be targeted.
A US intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity said the alleged plot had targeted United Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines flights to New York, Washington and Los Angeles, and possibly other major hubs such as Boston and Chicago.
Bombs recovered
US homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff indicated that bombs had been recovered at the homes of the arrested suspects.
"Since we did not have an opportunity to study the bombs before we took them under arrest and because it will take time to analyse what they have done, the prudent course was to prevent any kind of liquid that might be harbouring an explosive device coming in," he said in an interview on CNN.
Chertoff likened the plot to a foiled plan in 1995 to detonate bombs on 11 airliners flying to the United States over the Pacific.
Martyrdom video found
The Times also reported that a so-called "martyrdom video", seemingly recorded by someone planning on becoming a suicide bomber, was found at the home of one of the homes raided by police, citing unnamed government sources.
British police declined to comment on what had been found in the suspects' homes.
US news broadcaster ABC News reported that five people suspected of being involved in the plot were still at large and being hunted by police, a report London's Metropolitan Police declined to confirm.
British media outlets cited police sources as saying they had apprehended all known suspects.
"Whilst the police are confident that the main players have been accounted for, neither they nor the government are in any way complacent," said British home secretary John Reid.
Plot in final stages of planning
Deputy commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the London police's anti-terror branch, said police took "urgent action" overnight because the operation had reached a "critical point", but did not elaborate.
Chertoff said the plot involved attackers carrying components of the bombs in the form of liquid explosives and detonating devices disguised as drinks, electronic devices or other common objects. The components were to be assembled on the plane.
British police declined to confirm the use of liquid explosives.
Chertoff said the arrests had "significantly disrupted this major threat," adding that the plot had been in the "final stages" of planning.
Although there was no indication of plotting inside the United States, Washington would not drop its guard, he said.
Security around the world tightened
Airport authorities around the world tightened security measures on passengers and luggage travelling to and from Britain and the United States, causing travel delays on five continents.
Britain raised its security alert to "critical" - the highest of five levels - from "severe," where it had been since security was relaxed in the weeks after the London transport attacks of July 2005 which killed 56 people.
The United States raised the threat level for flights from Britain to the highest state: "severe, or red." For all other commercial air traffic, it was raised to "high, or orange."
British Airways cancelled short-haul flights on Thursday between Heathrow and other British and European cities, as well as the Libyan capital Tripoli.
With the large number of cancelled flights nearby hotels quickly filled up with stranded passengers, with one British Airways telling the Guardian some were forced travel as far away as the coastal town of Brighton, about 80km from London, to find a room.