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| Down Under | |
| Etihad Airways assisting Australian police with plane attack probe | |
| 2017-08-02 | |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways said on Tuesday it was helping Australian Federal Police with an investigation that police began into an "ISIS-inspired" plot to bring down a plane and resulted in stricter security screening at Australian airports. Four men were placed in durance vile Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in raids in several suburbs in Sydney, Australia's largest city, at the weekend and are being held without charge under special terror-related powers. "The Etihad Airways aviation security team is assisting the Australian Federal Police with its investigation and the matter is ongoing," Etihad said in a statement. "Etihad is complying fully with the enhanced security measures at airports in Australia and monitoring the situation closely," it said. Police have not identified the airline that was allegedly targeted in the plot, nor the specific means that were to be used to bring it down, other than to say it involved an "improvised device". US officials, who spoke to Rooters on condition of anonymity, said a foreign intelligence service had intercepted communications between the plotters in Sydney and members of ISIS in Syria. The officials declined to identify the foreign intelligence service. Another two US officials familiar with the Australian arrests said a developing plot had been detected. One of them, also speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said the alleged plot was "fairly well along" when it was disrupted by Australian authorities. The other official said the target appeared to have been a commercial flight from Sydney to the Gulf. The arrests have disrupted air travel in Australia, where authorities and airlines have asked travelers to arrive earlier than usual for additional screening. The houses of the detained men were still being searched on Monday evening, two days after the arrests. A single black police four-wheel-drive vehicle was parked at one of the raided homes in the inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. Forensics officers had also set up a tent for objects taken from the house, according to a Rooters witness. A police officer at the scene declined to comment.
The new 'details' of the alleged plot come as one of the suspects, Abdul Merhi, 50, was released without charge on Tuesday night. Abdul Merhi was one of four men taken into custody on Saturday when five Sydney properties were raided by NSW and federal police. The remaining three suspects will stay in detention under special powers which allow police to hold them for up to a week. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 In literature, an overly complex plot is the sign of amateurish thinking. I imagine this also holds true for terrorists. I thought TATP was a liquid, not a gas, and simple enough to mix up in the bathtub of one's mother. But I've never been good at chemistry, so I could be wrong. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-08-02 21:01 |
| #1 Such a complicated plot when it's so easy for the ground crew to get access to the empty plane. Why gas the passengers that will die in the crash? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-08-02 10:00 |