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:
- ISIS in Africa: The End of the “Sahel Exception”
June 2, 2020
This article will analyze two exceptions. The first is the long absence of confrontation between al Qaeda and Islamic state offshoots in the Sahel area. The second is an elected official conducting negotiations with an al Qaeda offshoot. Both constitute the “Sahel exception.” The first factor has ended, but the second still holds. Al Qaeda and ...
- Bombing kills Iraqi soldiers near disputed town, as anti-terror operations continue
June 2, 2020
The Iraqi army on Monday announced that an improvised explosive device (IED) had killed two of its soldiers, as they were conducting anti-terror operations near the disputed town of Makhmour, some 100 kilometers southeast of Mosul. Iraq’s Security Media Cell, the country’s official military communications center, said in a statement that the IED blew up under ...
- Landmine blast kills 7 laborers in Afghanistan
June 2, 2020
A landmine blast in Afghanistan’s restive northern Kunduz province killed at least seven farm laborers, an official confirmed on Tuesday. The governor’s spokesman Esmatullah Muradi told Anadolu Agency the incident took place in the Jungle Bashi area of Khan Abad district last evening where an improvised explosive device planted by the Taliban hit a convoy of ...
- The threat of Wilayat al Sinai in Egypt
June 1, 2020
The Sinai Peninsula is a strategically and economically significant region of Egypt, which is bordered by the Gaza Strip, Israel, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Mediterranean Sea, and – most importantly – the Suez Canal, where 8% of global trade transits occur, including 3% of global oil supplies. The insurgency in the Sinai region, which is ...
- Afghanistan: 2 children killed, wounded in an explosion in Nangarhar province
June 1, 2020
An explosion killed or wounded two children in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, the Afghan military said. The 201st Silab Corps in a statement said an improvised explosive device, planted by anti-government armed elements, went off in Shabi area of Deh Bala district in Nangarhar. The statement further added that the explosion killed a child and wounded ...
- Explosion close to a hospital in Kabul city leaves 3 wounded
May 31, 2020
An explosion wounded at least three people in Kabul city earlier this evening, a day after a similar blast killed two exployees of a TV channel. Tariq Arian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, said a roadside bomb went off close to Yasra Hospital in the 11th district of the city. According to Arian, the explosion ...
- Roadside Bomb Blast Kills 9 Near Somali Capital
May 31, 2020
Somali officials say nine civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion outside Mogadishu on Sunday. The blast from an improvised explosive device hit a bus transporting civilians from Mogadishu to the town of Wanlaweyn, 90 kilometers west of the capital. The Somali government says al-Shabab is responsible for the attack. Read more… Source: ...
- Journalist, Studio Technician Killed in Kabul Blast, 6 Wounded
May 30, 2020
IED hit a vehicle of Khurshid TV channel in PD4 of Kabul city, killing one journalist and a studio technician. 6 people were wounded in the attack. Khurshid TV’s economic reporter Zamir Amiri and technical staff member Shafiq were killed in the blast. Sediqqi said that no group or individual has threatened the TV channel recently, but stated that ...
- Somalia cannot defeat terrorism without accountable security
May 27, 2020
Ahmed Muse Nur, the governor of Mudug, in Somalia’s Puntland State, was killed by the al-Shabab terrorist group on May 17, 2020. He was Somalia’s third regional governor killed by the group in less than a year. The group earlier killed the Governor of Nugal, Abdisalam Hassan Hirsi, on March 29, 2020, and the Governor ...
- Has Covid-19 increased the risk of bioterrorism?
May 26, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of global societies to biological threats, both natural and manmade, and their potential for disruption. In many parts of the world, the coronavirus has morphed into an invisible enemy, capable of hiding within our ranks and multiplying in secret, before exploding onto the surface. The crisis has prompted unfounded accusations ...
- Iraq: Islamic State Using Video Game Controller Bombs Against Yazidis
May 26, 2020
Bomb detection units in Iraq uncovered a plot by the Islamic State to detonate bombs against Yazidi people hidden in video game controllers, a film highlighted by the UK Telegraph on Monday found. Telegraph, citing a newly released documentary, reported that should one of the controllers have been picked up and played with, four bombs would have detonated and ...
- Syria: ISIS’ jihadi brides raise group’s black flag over Al Hawl refugee camp
May 26, 2020
Shocking footage from the notorious Al Hawl refugee camp shows former jihadi brides raising the ISIS flag amid fears the group could be making a resurgence. The women, wearing all black, a rule previously enforced by the terrorist group during its reign, caused chaos at the refugee facility that houses some of the most dangerous campmates. The ...
- Colonel, 4 others killed in Yemen blast
May 26, 2020
A senior Yemeni security official was among five people killed in a bomb blast in the country’s eastern Hadhramaut province on Tuesday. An improvised explosive device targeted a vehicle carrying Colonel Saleh Ali Jaber — head of the security directorate of Shibam town — and four other people, local media reported. Mohammed Gezan, undersecretary of Yemen’s Information ...
- Libya: UNSMIL condemns the use of Improvised Explosive Devices against the civilians in Tripoli
May 26, 2020
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is extremely concerned about reports that residents of the Ain Zara and Salahuddin areas of Tripoli have been killed or wounded by Improvised Explosive Devices placed in/near their homes. This grotesque transformation and deterioration of the conflict, has occurred while families were seeking the safety and comfort ...
- Somalia security remains volatile with 1,086 attacks recorded in four months
May 23, 2020
The security situation in Somalia remained volatile, with 1086 attacks by the al-Qaeda-linked militant recorded in the past four months of the year, according to a new report by the United Nations Secretary General released to the Security Council this week. “Al-Shabaab significantly increased its mortar attacks in Mogadishu… with 235 incidents in January, 274 in February, ...
