New York, Nov 08: US officials today warned that al Qaeda may be plotting to fly cargo planes to attack targets on American soil, announced shutting down of their three missions in Saudi Arabia because of security concerns and asked American journalists in Afghanistan to be on guard. Officials cited new intelligence indicating that the threat was similar to the one that preceded the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

The most imminent threats were aimed at US targets overseas, but they said they could not rule out the possibility of an attack on US soil, officials were quoted as saying by the NBC television network.

"The US intelligence community remains concerned about al Qaeda's interest in carrying out attacks on US overseas. We also remain concerned about threats to the aviation industry and the use of cargo planes to carry out attacks on critical infrastructure," an official of the Homeland Security Department was quoted as saying. The officials said the threat was strikingly similar to the plot in which 19 al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four US jetliners and flew three of them into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon a little more than two years ago.

Bureau Report