The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked the plane’s captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel on Wednesday is an Omani national who was previously suspended from flying by Oman Air after being identified as a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Multiple sources familiar with the investigation identified the suspected attacker as 29-year-old Hamam Al Hammami.
The officials told ABC News that Al Hammami, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024, was found to be in possession of extremist materials. The suspect was allowed to continue working for the airline in an administrative role, the sources said.
Read more…
Source: ABC News
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Afghanistan: Kabul PD5 Police Chief Killed in IED Blast; One Person Killed And Another Arrested In Kabul In Connection With Planting IEDs
February 10, 2021
Mohammadzai Kochi, police chief of Kabul’s police district 5 (PD5) was killed in an explosion that targeted his vehicle in downtown Kabul on Wednesday morning, First Vice President Amrullah Saleh confirmed. The blast took place at around 8:55 am local time in Kart-e-Parwan in Kabul’s PD4, targeting his vehicle, the sources said, adding that two of ...
- Afghanistan: Eight Taliban Bomb Makers Killed, IEDs Factory Destroyed in Kandahar
February 10, 2021
A Taliban’s IEDs factory was destroyed and eight Taliban bomb makers, including their commander, were killed during Afghan Commando Forces’ operation in southern Kandahar province, defense official said. Ministry of defense said that the operation conducted in Arghandab district on Wednesday. In a separate statement, the ministry said that 15 Taliban insurgents were killed and two others ...
- Afghanistan: ANP and GCPSU discovered and defused 14 IEDs in Kandahar, Paktika, Herat, Takhar and Faryab provinces
February 9, 2021
Afghan National Police bomb disposal unit discovered & defused three Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Jowzjan, Kandahar and Paktika provinces. https://twitter.com/moiafghanistan/status/1359034865971257348 7 February 2021 – GCPSU bomb disposal unit discovered & neutralized seven IEDs planted by terrorists in Rubat Sangi district of Herat province. Lives of many civilians were saved as a result. https://twitter.com/moiafghanistan/status/1358310797911482371 6 February 2021 – the ...
- Afghanistan: Separate targeted attacks claim 4, wounds 2
February 9, 2021
At least two people were killed and four others wounded in two separate incidents on Tuesday morning in Kabul city. At least two people were wounded in a targeted magnetic IED blast in Kabul. The incident occurred at around 9:21 am in the First Macroryan area of Kabul. A black Land Cruiser belonging to the government was hit ...
- UN: TTP oversaw reunion of terror groups in Afghanistan
February 8, 2021
Afghanistan continues to serve as a sanctuary for terror groups including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), according to a recent United Nations report. The twenty-seventh report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team states that the TTP was reported to have overseen a reunification of splinter groups in Afghanistan. According to the document, this reunion of terror ...
- Tiny Drones Are the Biggest Threat in the Middle East Since IEDs, Top General Says
February 8, 2021
State and nonstate actors have figured out another cheap way to target U.S. troops, a four-star general warned this week. Small drones anyone can “go out and buy at Costco right now” pose the most concerning tactical development since the rise of the improvised explosive device in Iraq and Afghanistan, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., the ...
- Afghanistan: 2 Wounded And One Person Killed In Two Separate Explosions In Kabul
February 8, 2021
A magnetic IED blast targeted a vehicle carrying Abdul Hadi Rafiee, the deputy minister of agriculture for administration and finance, at a township in western Kabul on Monday morning. Police said the explosion caused no casualties, but a security source said that two people were wounded in the explosion, which was similar to blasts that have ...
- Somalia: Roadside Bomb Kills 12 Soldiers in Galmudug state
February 7, 2021
Twelve members of Somalia’s security forces were killed, and two others wounded on Sunday following a powerful roadside explosion in the central state of Galmudug, officials said. The attack occurred near the village of El Dhere, 28 kilometers west of Dhusamareb town, during a security operation, officials said. Dhusamareb is about 510 kilometers north of the ...
- Afghanistan: Three People Killed, Six Wounded in Four Blasts in Kabul
February 7, 2021
Four blasts happened in different parts of Kabul on Tuesday morning, leaving three people dead and six more wounded. The first blast happened at around 07:30 am in Joi Sheer area in the center of Kabul in which a police vehicle was targeted and two security force members were wounded, police said. A security source said that ...
- Afghanistan: Policeman Killed, 7 others Wounded in Nangarhar Blasts, Two Children Wounded In A Roadside Blast In Baghlan Province
February 7, 2021
At lest one policeman was killed and seven others including three civilians were wounded in two separate blasts in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday morning, local officials said. The first incident happened when a car bomb attack targeted a police outpost in Khogyani district in Nangarhar at around 5am local time, killing one policeman ...
- Afghanistan: Two Civilians, One Policeman Killed in Kabul Blasts
February 6, 2021
Three people, including two civilians and a police force members, were killed in three explosions in Kabul that happened in less than two hours on Saturday morning, police said. The first explosion happened at a shop in the Bagh-e-Qazi area west of Kabul at around 9:40 am local time. The type of the blast is unknown ...
- Belgium: Iran envoy sentenced to 20-year prison term over bomb plot
February 4, 2021
A Belgian court has convicted an Iranian diplomat for plotting a thwarted 2018 bombing of an opposition rally outside Paris and ordered that he is jailed for 20 years. Assadollah Assadi, now 49, was attached to the Iranian mission in Austria when he supplied explosives for the planned attack. After the attack was foiled, he was arrested ...
- IED kills four Tunisian soldiers in mountain region
February 3, 2021
An improvised explosive device killed four Tunisian soldiers patrolling in a mountain region near the Algerian border, Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed Zekri said on Wednesday. The mountainous Moghila area, near the impoverished city of Kasserine, is home to an Islamist militant group that the Tunisian army has been fighting for years. Tunisia faces a small but persistent ...
- Afghanustan: One Policeman Killed, Three Wounded in Kabul Blast
February 3, 2021
One police force member was killed and three more were wounded in an explosion that targeted their vehicle in Kabul on Wednesday morning, police confirmed in a statement. The incident happened at around 08:30 am local time in Tangi Tarakhil area in Kabul’s PD15 in which a police vehicle was targeted by a magnetic bomb. Police did ...
- Senior Afghan peace ministry official survives ‘IED explosion’
February 1, 2021
Khushnood Nabizada, Chief of Staff at State Ministry for Peace and the founder of Khaama Press News Agency, was targeted in an IED blast in PD10 Hangara Square of Kabul city on Monday morning. Nabizada told Khaama Press that the blast happened as he was on his way to work, and he was not seriously wounded ...