Somali intelligence
officials say two airport workers handled a laptop containing a bomb that later
exploded in a passenger plane.
In a video made public
on Sunday by officials, one airport worker takes the laptop and hands it to
another employee.
The employees then
hand it over to a man who was killed when the laptop explosion blew a hole in
the plane's fuselage, said Abdisalam Aato, a spokesman for the Somali Prime
Minister.
Both workers have been
arrested.
Somali officials
identified the lone fatality as suspect Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh. He was
sucked out of the airliner through the hole from the blast Tuesday.
Investigators suspect
Borleh, a Somali national, carried a laptop computer with a bomb in it onto the
plane, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
He knew precisely
where to sit and how to place the device to maximize damage.
Given the placement,
the blast likely would have set off a catastrophic secondary explosion in the
fuel tank if the aircraft had reached cruising altitude, the source said.
But the explosion
happened at a lower altitude, between 12,000 feet and 14,000 feet, killing the
Somali national and injuring two others.
Though preliminary
tests showed the bomb contained a military grade of the explosive TNT, the
source said, it failed to bring down Daallo Airlines Flight 3159. The pilot
turned around and landed the Airbus safely in Mogadishu.
"Security at our
airport is strong, but we need to do more," Aato said in response to
concerns about airport security. "While threats will always be there, this
could happen at any other airport,".
Somalia asked U.S.
officials for help with investigations, and several FBI agents are on the
ground assisting in Mogadishu, the spokesman said.
"This was a
sophisticated attack ... so we reached out to our international partners,"
Aato said.
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