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Singapore warns of terrorist missile threat to airlines
Singapore, Nov 19: Terrorists armed with surface-to-air missiles pose a major threat to commercial aircraft, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan has warned.
Singapore, Nov 19: Terrorists armed with
surface-to-air missiles pose a major threat to commercial
aircraft, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan has warned.
“How to protect commercial aircraft against portable
defense system air missiles is a very big issue for all
countries,'' Tan told reporters in Paris, according to a
transcript provided by the National Security Secretariat
today.
Terrorists fired two such missiles at a Boeing 757 in Kenya in November 2002, narrowly missing the aircraft as it took off from Mombasa airport with Israeli tourists returning to Tel Aviv.
He named Singapore Airlines, Air France and British Airways as carriers worried about the impact an attack would have on their business, speaking at the conclusion of a week-long visit to France yesterday.
“British Airways was so concerned a few months ago about the threat to their airplanes in Saudi Arabia that they banned all flights to Saudi Arabia for a month,'' he said.
An estimated 27 guerrilla and terrorist groups worldwide have Soviet SA-series shoulder-fired missile launchers, which now outnumber the US-made stinger missiles that spread through Afghanistan in the 1990s, according to Jane's Intelligence Review.
The weapons have a lifespan of 22 years and are nearly impossible to track until they are used because groups buy them on the black market, according to the defense journal.
Bureau Report
Terrorists fired two such missiles at a Boeing 757 in Kenya in November 2002, narrowly missing the aircraft as it took off from Mombasa airport with Israeli tourists returning to Tel Aviv.
He named Singapore Airlines, Air France and British Airways as carriers worried about the impact an attack would have on their business, speaking at the conclusion of a week-long visit to France yesterday.
“British Airways was so concerned a few months ago about the threat to their airplanes in Saudi Arabia that they banned all flights to Saudi Arabia for a month,'' he said.
An estimated 27 guerrilla and terrorist groups worldwide have Soviet SA-series shoulder-fired missile launchers, which now outnumber the US-made stinger missiles that spread through Afghanistan in the 1990s, according to Jane's Intelligence Review.
The weapons have a lifespan of 22 years and are nearly impossible to track until they are used because groups buy them on the black market, according to the defense journal.
Bureau Report