Feds fear terror groups developing laptop bombs that evade airport security
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U.S. intelligence sources suggest ISIS and other terrorist groups can build laptop bombs capable of slipping past airport security scanners, Fox News has learned.
The sources fear that terrorists have gotten their hands on sophisticated airport security equipment that allows them to properly conceal explosives in laptops and other large electronic devices, Fox News reported Friday.
That intelligence is behind the recent decision to ban electronics in carry-on bags from flights to the U.S. from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries, Fox & Friends reported Saturday.
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The U.S. ban applies to nonstop U.S.-bound flights from 10 international airports in Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Associated Press reports. About 50 flights a day, all on foreign airlines, are affected.
“Evaluated intelligence indicates that terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation, to include smuggling explosive devices in electronics,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The intelligence shows ISIS is among several terrorist groups plotting to put bombs in laptops on airplanes bound for the United States, Fox 5 NY reported late Friday.
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Terrorists have had some success before with a laptop bomb, the station reported. Six passengers were hurt on a plane at an airport in Somalia in March of 2016 when a bomb planted in a laptop exploded.