Basil Hassan behind passenger plane bomb plot

A terrorist who sent explosive devices in the post to several countries, including Australia, as part of a trial run to bomb a passenger plane has been identified as an engineer who ran Islamic State’s drone program.

One of Europe’s most dangerous terrorists was behind a plot to smuggle an explosive device into Australia, successfully beating the nation’s security screening.

Basil Hassan, a Lebanese-Danish engineer who ran Islamic State’s drone program, has been identified as one of the terrorists who sent explosive devices in the post to several countries, including Australia, as part of a trial run to bomb a passenger plane.

Basil Hassan.

Tarek Khayat.

Mahmoud Khayat.

Khaled Khayat.

Middle Eastern and European intelligence officials believe Hassan was a ringleader of the plot and that the group successfully sent explosive materials via the post and airfreight.

The explosive material was not detected when it arrived in Australia.

But the plot was foiled when two Sydney brothers, Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat, tried to put bombs packed into a Barbie doll and a meat grinder into their brother Amer’s luggage to take aboard a plane in July 2017, only to be turned away because the luggage was too heavy.

Hassan, 31, is believed to have been killed in Syria some months after the explosives were sent.

Amer Khayat.

The Herald Sun can only now reveal the pivotal role played by Hassan in the Barbie doll bomb plot, after a jury’s decision this week to find Mahmoud Khayat, 34, guilty of conspiring to prepare or plan a terrorist attack. His brother Khaled Khayat had been convicted earlier this year, while oldest brother and plot ringleader Tarek Khayat is on death row in Baghdad, Iraq, after admitting being a member of Islamic State.

In Lebanon, Amer Khayat was found not guilty of involvement of the attempted bombing of the Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on July 15, 2017, and is awaiting release from a prison in the capital Beirut.

An intelligence report compiled by the Lebanese Internal Security Force and seen by the Herald Sun says Hassan sent big amounts of cash out of Lebanon to several foreign countries in 2017.

“This money was used (for) financing the sending of camouflaged explosive devices from Syria to Turkey in preparation for the transfer of (sic) several European and foreign countries,’’ the report said.

“One of them was transported to Australia, which would have been used in the bombing of the UAE plane.’’

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation DR also reported in April that Danish officials had information Hassan and associates tested the security in a number of countries, including Australia, by posting explosive devices.

According to the two-year DR investigation, packages were sent to Australia, Qatar, England, Germany and the United States.

Danish intelligence sources confirmed the packages were sent from Turkey and the Maldives by a Raqqa-based group which included Hassan. They were sent as post by aircraft, to test the security screening of each nation. In Australia, the package was sent, according to Danish intelligence, to an Islamic State sympathiser.

MORE NEWS

DARREN, DEA JOLLY LATEST AFL COUPLE TO SPLIT

CLIMATE STRIKE BRINGS CBD TO STANDSTILL

BOTTLE BASHER LOSES ON RACISM CARD

Hassan, who in 2013 shot and wounded a Danish journalist, was a leading member of the “research and development’’ arm of Islamic State in Raqqa, which was the unit responsible for plotting attacks on the west.

Born Mohammed Basil el Cheikh Hassan, a Palestinian-Lebanese man with Danish citizenship, Hassan also used the nom de guerre Abu Hani al-Lubnani.

According to the Lebanese Internal Security Force report, Hassan operated under the alias Abu Alwalid al Makdesi.

Lebanese officials say he died in the siege of Deir ez Zor in eastern Syria on July 4, 2017. Danish authorities consider his death unconfirmed.

[e-mail]