Security boost ordered in airports with direct flights to the United States

A SECURITY clampdown has been ordered on airports with direct flights to the United States as fears grow that rising tensions in the Middle East could spill-over into terrorism.

Airport at the sunset

A SECURITY clampdown has been ordered on airports with direct flights to the United States as fears grow that rising tensions in the Middle East could spill-over into terrorism.

Officials say intelligence agencies are concerned about new jihadist efforts to produce a bomb that would go undetected through airport security.

United Kingdom officials immediately followed suit, ordering boosted security into and out of the country.

American intelligence reportedly has picked up indications that bomb makers from al-Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate have travelled to Syria to link up with the al-Qaeda affiliate there.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he directed the Transportation Security Administration to put more security measures in place at some foreign airports that have non-stop flights to the US.

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Americans and others from the West have travelled to Syria over the past year to join al-Nusra Front’s fight against the Syrian government.

The fear is that one of the many US or Western European passport holders who have travelled to Syria to fight could carry such a bomb onto an American plane.

Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is accused of a long obsession with bringing down aeroplanes with hidden explosives.

It was believed to be behind failed and thwarted plots involving suicide bombers with explosives designed to hide inside underwear and explosives hidden inside printer cartridges shipped on cargo planes.

The counterterrorism official declined to describe the bomb, but officials in the past have raised concerns about explosives being surgically implanted.

The Homeland Security Department would not say whether the call for enhanced security was in response to a specific threat.

The US shared “recent and relevant” information with foreign allies, Johnson said.