Tighter checks for US-bound flights

04/01/2010| IslamWeb

The US government has announced that visitors from several countries will be subject to new airport security screening procedures.

Beginning Monday, all passengers flying from or via at least 14 countries, including Nigeria and Yemen, will be patted down and have all carry-on luggage searched before boarding flights bound for the US.

The move is part of the security crackdown following the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian man, was arrested after being accused of carrying a bomb sewn into his underwear on to a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Abdulmutallab, who had got through security screening, was subdued by passengers and crew after allegedly attempting, unsuccessfully, to detonate the bomb on board the plane.

Barack Obama, the US president, said on Friday that it appeared Abdulmutallab was a member of al-Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the group in Yemen.

The US government is investigating why its intelligence agencies failed to stop Abdulmutallab from boarding the plane but on Sunday, John Brennan, the deputy national security adviser, said that while some errors were made in tracking him, there was no one piece of evidence to help officials connect all the dots.

PHOTO CAPTION

Map shows 11 countries where TSA will implement random enhanced screening of passengers on U.S.

Al-Jazeera