US boosts air security on 14 nations

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Air travellers from Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and nine other countries will face full-body pat downs before boarding airliners, under new security procedures targeting foreign passengers announced by the US.

The procedures, which comes into effect on Monday, follow the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner blamed on a Nigerian man who US officials believe was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen.

Passengers travelling from or through nations listed as "state sponsors of terrorism" - Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria - as well as Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen will face heightened screening, an Obama administration official said.

Nearly all of those are Muslim countries.

Such passengers will be patted down, have their carry-on luggage searched and could undergo advanced explosive detection or imaging scans, according to the official.

The Transportation Security Administration, the US agency responsible for air security measures, announced the "enhanced screening" procedures, adding that any passengers on US-bound flights could be subjected to random security searches.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was arrested by US authorities after being accused of carrying a bomb sewn into his underwear onto a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25.

He got through security screening in Amsterdam, and was subdued by passengers and crew after trying to blow up the plane.

US President Barack Obama said on Friday it appeared Abdulmutallab was a member of al Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the Islamic militant network in Yemen.

FULL BODY SCANNERS

Meanwhile, British airport operator BAA said on Sunday it will move quickly to install full-body scanners at London's Heathrow airport.

"Now that the government has given the go-ahead, we will introduce full-body scanners as soon as practical," said a spokesman for BAA.

"It is our view that a combination of technology, intelligence and passenger profiling will help build a more robust defence against the unpredictable and changing nature of the terrorist threat to aviation," he said.

He said BAA, which operates six British airports, was just looking at introducing the scanners at Heathrow - Europe's busiest airport by passenger numbers - at this stage. He could not give a timetable for their introduction or say how much the move would cost.

- Reuters