US: All air cargo from Turkey to be screened

The Transportation Security Administration said yesterday that all air cargo coming to the US from Turkey will undergo enhanced screening in the wake of a foiled attempt in July to bomb a commercial airliner.

“To adequately address emerging threats to cargo and raise the baseline for global aviation security, the TSA will issue a security directive and an emergency amendment for enhanced security screening of cargo on September 7, 2017,” agency spokesman Michael England told the Anadolu Agency.

“The directive and amendment mandates voluntary measures already applied by our partner in Turkey, ensuring that cargo flying to the United States is screened and secured in accordance with the Air Cargo Advance Screening Programme.”

Read: French president: Turkey is a ‘key partner’ of the EU

The new mandate came after Australian law enforcement said a senior Daesh commander had shipped bomb components on a commercial cargo plane from Turkey to Australia in July.

They were used to build an improvised explosive device disguised as a meat mincer. An Etihad Airways flight was targeted on 15 July, but the bomb was detected by airport security.

Two men in Sydney who received the bomb parts and built the device were later charged over the incident for terror-related offences.