Bomb scare aboard cargo flight to US sparks terror alert

TWO suspicious packages intercepted on cargo planes in transit to the United States were addressed to religious institutions in Chicago, the FBI said today as Jewish synagogues were placed on alert.

A suspicious package found aboard a cargo flight from Yemen to the United States had earlier sparked an international terror alert.

The FBI said it does not believe an attack is imminent but cautioned area religious institutions to be on the alert.

"There have been no threats made or received indicating that anyone or any location in Chicago is at risk," Ross Rice, spokesman for the FBI's Chicago office, told Agence France Presse in an email.

"The two suspicious packages did not contain explosives."

"Since two of the suspicious packages that were intercepted were addressed to religious institutions in Chicago, all churches, synagogues and mosques in the Chicago area should be vigilant for any unsolicited or unexpected packages, especially those originating from overseas locations," Rice said.

Jewish organisations were contacted early today and warned of the threat, said Linda Hasse, vice president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.

"We were told that synagogues should be on the alert," Hasse told Agence France Presse.

"We are taking appropriate precautions and advising local synagogues to do likewise."

US President Barack Obama was told late on Thursday of a "potential terrorist threat" from suspicious packages from Yemen on two cargo planes, one in Britain and the other in Dubai, the White House said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that as a precaution, extra security measures were taken regarding other cargo planes at Newark and Philadelphia international airports in the United States.

US package delivery giant FedEx suspended deliveries from Yemen today after a suspicious package originating from there was confiscated in Dubai.

"In cooperation with the FBI, local authorities have confiscated a suspicious package at the FedEx facility in Dubai," a company statement said.

"The shipment originated in Yemen and as an additional safety measure, FedEx has embargoed all shipments originating from Yemen."

Aviation officials said planes at Philadelphia International Airport and Newark Liberty Airport in the US were towed away to be checked after police found a suspicious package on a US cargo plane at a regional British airport.

Authorities in Britain confirmed that a suspicious package had been found early on Friday in a freight distribution centre at East Midlands Airport in central England.

Earlier, CNN cited a law enforcement official as saying a suspected bomb disguised as a toner cartridge was found on a US cargo plane in London during a stopover on a flight from Yemen to Chicago.

It later cited a second law enforcement source as saying suspicions were raised because the toner cartridge had been manipulated but a test for explosives proved negative.

Fears this is just a test

Concerns remain that the nature of the package meant it could be a test run for a bomb.

US media reports suggested that at least one of the cargo planes being swept in the United States had also passed through East Midlands Airport.

Fran Townsend, who was homeland security adviser to president George W Bush, told CNN the security scare followed growing intelligence concerns about a possible attack by al-Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate.

"There had been a rising concern about packages and cargo being used to launch an attack," she said.

"The US intelligence community has been focused on that. You add to that in the last 24 hours a tip from a very credible US ally who provided some, I'm told, very specific information about packages coming out of Yemen."

Mr Townsend said a plane had been grounded in Dubai in addition to the one in Britain and that the concern was over cargo planes containing packages from Yemen.

"They'll look at every single carrier who potentially either took packages out of Yemen or picked them up en route in a second country on their way here from Yemen."

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, faces a growing threat from the local branch of his global jihadist network.

Over the past decade, it has become a haven for violent extremists, becoming the headquarters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the hiding place for US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was linked to high-profile terror plots in the United States.

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