Parcel bomb found in Dubai traveled on 2 passenger planes

A parcel bomb addressed to the United States that was discovered in Dubai travelled on a Qatar Airways passenger flight, a source with the airline said on Sunday.

Qatar Airways said in a statement that "a recent courier consignment was carried aboard one of its aircraft from Sanaa to Dubai via Doha International Airport."
The aircraft was a passenger plane, the source said on condition of anonymity.

"The explosives discovered were of a sophisticated nature whereby they could not be detected by x-ray screening or trained sniffer dogs. The explosives were only discovered after an intelligence tip-off," the airline added.

However, "it is not the responsibility of the country in which the cargo transits to x-ray or inspect" it. This is the responsibility of "the country from where the consignment originates," it said.

Two suspected Al Qaeda packages from Yemen intercepted in Dubai and Britain on Friday and addressed to synagogues in Chicago contained powerful explosives and could have exploded, authorities said.

The second package was found on a cargo plane at Britain's East Midlands airport.

US President Barack Obama said the two parcels, whose discovery after a tip-off from Saudi Arabia sparked an international security alert, were a "credible terrorist threat."

Earlier, a Qatar Airways spokesman says a parcel carrying the mail bomb found in Dubai traveled on two separate passenger planes.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the company's standing policies on conversations with the media.

The package arrived in Qatar Airways' hub in Doha, Qatar on a flight from the Yemeni capital San'a. It was then shipped on a separate plane to Dubai in the UAE, where it was discovered by authorities.

The package contained explosives hidden in a printer cartridge and was headed for the United States. Al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen is suspected in the plot.

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