The US government, as of yesterday, is barring passengers on certain flights originating in eight countries from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and most other electronics in carry-on luggage.
The reason for the ban was not immediately clear.
The ban was revealed on Monday in statements from Royal Jordanian Airlines and the official news agency of Saudi Arabia.
A US official said the ban would apply to nonstop flights to the US from 10 international airports serving the cities of Cairo, Amman, Kuwait City, Casablanca, Doha, Riyadh, Jeddah, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The ban was indefinite, the official said.
The airlines have until Friday to comply with the new restrictions, which would be in place indefinitely.
No American carriers were affected by the ban, because none fly directly to the US from the airports, officials said.
However, it does apply to US citizens traveling on those flights.
It does not apply to crew members on those foreign carriers.
However, the decision had nothing to do with US President Donald Trump’s efforts to impose a travel ban of six majority-Muslim nations, officials said.
A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman said the government “did not target specific nations. We relied upon evaluated intelligence to determine which airports were affected.”
Royal Jordanian said cellphones and medical devices were excluded from the ban. Everything else would need to be packed in checked luggage, it said.
The new restrictions were prompted by reports that terror groups want to smuggle explosive devices in consumer electronic devices, officials told reporters on a conference call on Monday.
US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly telephoned lawmakers over the weekend to brief them on aviation security issues that have prompted the impending electronics ban, according a congressional aide briefed on the discussion.
The aide was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The ban came just ahead of today’s meeting in Washington of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group.
A number of top Arab officials were expected to attend the US Department of State gathering. It was unclear whether their travel plans were related to any increased worry about security threats.
US officials told Reuters that the information gleaned from a US commando raid in January in Yemen that targeted al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) included bomb-making techniques.
AQAP, based in Yemen, has plotted to down US airliners and claimed responsibility for 2015 attacks on the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.
It claimed responsibility for a Dec. 25, 2009, failed attempt by a Nigerian Islamist to down an airliner over Detroit. The device, hidden in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, failed to detonate.
AQAP also has boasted of the world’s most feared bomb makers, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri.
An aviation-security expert, Jeffrey Price, a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said there were disadvantages to having everyone put their electronics in checked baggage.
Thefts from baggage would skyrocket, as when Britain tried a similar ban in 2006, he said, and some laptops have batteries that can catch fire — an event easier to detect in the cabin than in the cargo hold.
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