Opposition says government or Russian jets pounded the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib.

The attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some to foam at the mouth [Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

At least 58 people, including nine children, were killed in an air raid that released “toxic gas” on the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, a monitor said.

The attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some had foam coming from their mouths, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing medical sources who described the symptoms as possible signs of a gas attack.

Locals said the attack began in the early morning, when they heard planes in the sky followed by a series of loud explosions after which people very quickly began to show symptoms. They said they could not identify the planes. Both Syrian and Russian jets have bombed the area before.

Russia’s defence ministry denied it carried out the raids, telling the State-run RIA news agency that it carried out no bombing runs in the area on Tuesday.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using such weapons and the Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment.

Opposition activtists and the AFP news agency, citing one of its journalists on the scene, later said a rocket had slammed into a hospital where the victims were being treated, bringing rubble down on medics as they struggled to deal with victims.

The Observatory monitoring group, which tracks the war through a network of contacts on the ground, was unable to confirm the nature of the substance used.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Beirut, said locals on the ground expected that the number of dead would increase and that many of the wounded were children.

“There were people fainting, they were vomiting, they were foaming at the mouth,” Fisher said.

“In that situation, the treatment tends to be to try and strip people off, to get the chemicals away from their bodies, to hose them down as quickly as possible. But even then some of the pictures that have been posted on social media in the last couple of hours show very young people struggling for breath, many people dead where they fell.”

‘Disgusting act’

Fisher reported that hospitals in the area were overwhelmed with the scale of the apparent attack and that footage showed them struggling to cope with the number of victims.

“Al Jazeera has no way of independently confirming the stories that are coming from there but the reality is there are a number of sources who are saying so many similar things,” Fisher said.

“It appears that what we’re being told is a fair reflection of the current events in Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province in Syria.”

The Edlib Media Centre (EMC), a pro-opposition group, posted images that were widely shared on social media, showing many people being treated by medics and what appeared to be dead bodies, many of them children.

The national opposition in Syria called for an immediate United Nations investigation and for the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting and condemn those behind the attack. The French government also called on the Security Council to meet.

“A new and particularly serious chemical attack took place this morning in Idlib province. The first information suggests a large number of victims, including children. I condemn this disgusting act,” France’s foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said in a statement.

“In the face of such serious actions that threaten international security, I ask for everyone not to shirk their responsibilities,” he added.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the “inhuman” attack could endanger peace talks, AFP reported, citing sources.

Hospitals bombed

On Sunday, suspected Russian fighter jets bombed a hospital in a city in Idlib, wounding several people, a rescue group said.

At least ten people were wounded when three air raids targeted the main hospital in Maaret al-Numan, destroying the building, a White Helmets group official told Al Jazeera.

The White Helmets, also know as the Syrian Civil Defence, are volunteer rescuers that operate in rebel-held territory.

“For the past week, Idlib has been targeted by ongoing air strikes, and after yesterday’s attack, one of its main hospitals has been mostly destroyed and can no longer function,” Majid, another member of the White Helmets, said.

Over the past year, Doctors Without Borders has received reports of at least 71 attacks on at least 32 different health facilities, which it runs or supports in Syria.

Fearing assassination, Al Jazeera’s Ahmad Zaidan and independent journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem file US legal complaint.

Bilal Abdul Kareem has been reporting from rebel-held northern Syria since 2012 (Twitter).

by D. Parvaz, Al Jazeera

Washington DC – Two journalists who say they have been targeted by the United States have filed a complaint against the American government, accusing it of putting them on a “kill list” and demanding to be taken off it.

The complaint was filed in the US District Court of the District of Columbia on Thursday on behalf of Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan – a dual Pakistani-Syrian citizen who works for Al Jazeera and Bilal Abdul Kareem, an American who has freelanced for Al Jazeera.

It accuses the US government of using information gathered via its Skynet surveillance programme, which has been used to guide drone strikes on “terror suspects”.

The plaintiffs accuse the United States of conspiracy to commit murder outside its borders and violating international law on targeting civilians.

Filed by UK-based rights group Reprieve and the Washington DC-based law firm Lewis Baach, the complaint asks the court to declare the journalists’ inclusion on the list illegal, and issue an injunction removing their names until they can review the secret evidence against them. It also asks the US to cease any planned strikes against the plaintiffs.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s founder and director, said the timing of the filing is linked to information his organisation has received from a secret source in Turkey who claims an attempt on Abdul Kareem’s life is imminent.

“We know they’re targeting Bilal and we’ve got to intimidate them enough, through publicity, to prevent them from doing this,” said Stafford Smith.

He told Al Jazeera there is no doubt the men are on the list of targets the US government is going after.

“When you look at Ahmad Zaidan … we have a copy of their [US] leaked Power Point saying he’s on the list. So that’s pretty powerful,” Stafford Smith said.

He said the case of Abdul Kareem is “even stronger”, as the US has allegedly targeted him several times before.

“The reason we know that is that three of those strikes, at least, maybe more, were drones, and the only country that had weaponised drones at the time was the US,” said Stafford Smith.

According to Reprieve’s research, it is not uncommon for the United States’ drone programme to require several attempts before killing a target, even ones such as Abdul Kareem or Zaidan who are not in hiding.

“The US misses on average three times for each person they’re trying to target. And with some people as many as nine or 10 times… Even a cat has only nine lives,” Stafford Smith said.

Named after the artificial intelligence system in the Terminator movies, Skynet uses metadata – such as geolocation and social media activity – to flag individuals as potential “terrorist” threats, placing them on the so-called kill list – also referred to as the ” disposition matrix ” in the complaint.

“When you use an algorithm, it sounds very fancy, but an algorithm carries with it all the biases of the person who wrote it… This is the same problem with Skynet,” said Stafford Smith.

“The people who are really the ‘bad dudes’ out there, like Osama bin Laden, are not tweeting to anyone – they’re not sending text messages to [current al-Qaeda chief] Ayman al-Zawahiri.”

The sort of activities carried out by reporters in the normal course of doing their job, he said, is essentially what landed both men on the kill list.

Over the course of his career, Zaidan has interviewed senior leaders of groups listed as “terrorist” organisations by the US, including former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, head of the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front in Syria. He served as Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Pakistan for many years, and is now an executive producer of programmes.

In a document leaked in 2015, the US National Security Agency alleged that Zaidan was a member of al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood – allegations that he countered in an op-ed detailing his meetings with members of al-Qaeda and other groups.

Abdul Kareem was one of the few independent journalists reporting from the ground during the battle for Syria’s Aleppo last year for a number of outlets, including Al Jazeera. He has also interviewed members of the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate in rebel-held areas.

The complaint filed on Thursday stated: “Neither Zaidan nor Kareem pose a continuing, imminent threat to US persons or national security. Neither Zaidan nor Kareem is a member or supporter of any terrorist group. Inclusion of Zaidan and Kareem on the kill list under these circumstance was arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”

In Abdul Kareem’s case, being targeted also violates his constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment – prohibiting illegal seizure of evidence, in this case, data – as well as the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees US citizens due process.

The complaint has been filed against President Donald Trump, the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, the CIA, as well as several security-related agency and department heads.

Requests for comment were not responded to by the time of publication.

SDF take military airport from ISIL in northern Syria, close to country’s largest dam that may be in danger of collapse.

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces forces are now within 10km of Raqqa from the north [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters has captured a strategic airbase from ISIL in northern Syria in the first major victory for the group since the US airlifted the forces behind enemy lines last week.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Sunday that they captured the Tabqa airbase, 45km west of Raqqa, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group’s de facto capital in Syria.

SDF forces were also battling for the nearby Tabqa dam, held by ISIL, which was forced out of service on Sunday after its power station was damaged.

Earlier this week, US forces airlifted SDF fighters behind ISIL lines to allow them to launch the Tabqa assault, and on Friday the alliance reached one of the dam’s entrances.

SDF forces were within 10km of Raqqa from the north, and aimed to effectively surround the city before launching an assault.

Tabqa airbase was captured by ISIL fighters from the Syrian government in August 2014.

Shortly afterwards, the group announced it had killed about 200 government soldiers at the base, in a mass killing recorded and distributed on video over social media.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the SDF advance.

Meanwhile there were conflicting reports over whether civilians had begun evacuating Raqqa due to concerns over the stability of the nearby Tabqa Dam.

ISIL fighters said US-led coalition air strikes had locked up the dam’s gates, causing the water level behind it to rise.

The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported that ISIL had ordered Raqqa residents to evacuate the city.

Fear of collapse

The director of the Syrian government’s General Authority of Euphrates Dam that formerly operated the huge project blamed US air raids for disrupting internal control systems and putting the dam out of service, and warned of growing risks that could lead to flooding and future collapses.

“Before the latest strikes by the Americans, the dam was working. Two days ago, the dam was functioning normally,” Nejm Saleh told Reuters news agency.

“God forbid … there could be collapses or big failures that could lead to flooding,” Saleh said.

An SDF spokesman denied that coalition strikes hit the dam structure and said the airdrop landing last week was conducted to prevent any damage to the main structure by engaging the rebels away from the dam.

“The capture of the dam is being conducted slowly and carefully and this is why the liberation of the dam needs more time,” Talal Silo said, adding that ISIL fighters had dug inside the dam knowing they would not be hit for fear of damaging the dam.

The Syrian Observatory said it had also learned from its own sources that the dam had stopped functioning, but that ISIL remained in control of its main operational buildings and turbines.

US-backed Kurdish forces were in control of a spillway north of the dam “which can be used to alleviate pressure on the dam if need be,” the coalition said in a letter to AP news agency.

The coalition said the dam had not been structurally damaged, to its knowledge, and that it has not targeted the dam.

The SDF announced that it would “suspend its operations” in the vicinity of the dam on Monday for four hours so that engineers could access it and carry out much needed repairs.

The UN warned this year of the risk of catastrophic flooding from the dam.

The Syrian Observatory and the activist-run Raqqa 24 media centre reported that as of Sunday there were no evacuations in Raqqa.

The reports from Raqqa came as a leading Syrian opposition group called on the US-led coalition to stop targeting residential areas in and around the city.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) said in a statement that it was “increasingly concerned” about civilian casualties in the campaign against the group. The exiled opposition coalition is taking part in UN-mediated talks in Geneva.

The SNC said it believed coalition forces were behind an air strike that killed at least 30 civilians sheltering in a school in the countryside outside Raqqa on March 21. The coalition has said it is investigating.

The Syrian Observatory said coalition air strikes had killed 89 civilians in Raqqa province in the past week.

Passengers decry US, UK ban on laptops and tablets in hand luggage on some flights from Middle East and North Africa.

US, UK ban prohibits electronic devices larger than smart phones in cabins for flights coming from the Middle East and North Africa [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

The US and British ban on laptops and tablets in carry-on luggage on some flights from the Middle East and North Africa has come into force, immediately drawing complaints from passengers at several airports.

The ban requires that personal devices larger than a mobile phone – such as tablets, laptops and cameras – be placed in checked baggage for US and Britain-bound flights.

The US restrictions apply to flights originating from 10 airports in countries including Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The British restrictions do not include the UAE or Qatar but do affect Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

The affected airports had until Saturday to implement the new rules.

The ban s have already led to discontent and complaints from passengers at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, which is one of those listed.

“This airport is so secured. The security level is so high compared to other airports in the rest of this part of the world. So why doing that from here?” Haggai Mazursky, a traveller, told Reuters news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said the airlines were trying to limit passengers’ frustrations while holding talks with the US to lift the ban.

“They [Turkish airlines] believe that if the comfort of passenger is affected, it will impact the industry as a whole and the company as well,” she said.

“In efforts to make it easier for the passengers, they [Turkish Airlines] are offering free wifi during flights and will also launch a special mobile application in April.”

US and British officials said the decision to implement the security measures was a result of intelligence showing an increased risk for “terrorist activity” involving commercial aviation.

However, many observers in the Middle East and North Africa said the ban amounted to discrimination, while others questioned the basis for the electronics ban, saying they were a ploy to undermine the aviation industry of the countries affected.

“If you say it like this, you are saying everybody can be a terrorist. It’s not respectful. I think it’s not good,” said one passenger at Ataturk International Airport.

Geoffrey Thomas, the editor-in-chief of A irlineratings.com, said the UK joining the ban gave it some credibility that there might be an evolving threat, “but at the same time UK has not banned UAE and Qatar, which raises a lot of concern as to what this is all about”.

“Some suggest that the ban on UAE and Qatar has more to do with the Trump administration’s desire to curb the power of Middle East carriers, because one of the crazy parts about this ban is that Emirates from Dubai to Athens, and on to the US, is not included in the measures.

“And then you have cities that actually have security challenges, such as Lagos and Islamabad, which are also not included in the ban. So, there are questions about this that leave a lot of experts perplexed,” Thomas said.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that talks were underway to try to persuade the US and Britain to exclude Turkish Airlines and Istanbul airport from the ban s.

Ex-president, recently acquitted for role in protester deaths during 2011 uprising, is free after six-year detention.

Mubarak supporters gathered outside the military hospital where he is staying [Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak left a military hospital on Friday where he had spent much of his six-year detention, his lawyer said.

Mubarak had been cleared for release earlier this month after a top court finally acquitted him of involvement in protester deaths during the 2011 revolt that ousted him.

“Yes,” his lawyer Farid al-Deeb told AFP news agency when asked if Mubarak had left the hospital on Friday.

Mubarak was accused of inciting the deaths of protesters during the 18-day revolt, in which about 850 people were killed as police clashed with demonstrators.

He was sentenced to life in 2012 in the case, but an appeals court ordered a retrial which dismissed the charges two years later.

Egypt’s top appeals court on March 2 acquitted him of involvement in the killings.

In January 2016, the appeals court upheld a three-year prison sentence for Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges.

But the sentence took into account time served. Both of his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed.

On Thursday, a court ordered a renewed corruption investigation into Mubarak for allegedly receiving gifts from the state owned Al-Ahram newspaper.

Meanwhile several key activists in the 2011 uprising are now serving lengthy jail terms, and rights groups say hundreds of others have been forcibly disappeared.

“As Hosni Mubarak goes free in Egypt, thousands of prisoners still languish in horrific prison conditions. Many face the death penalty on charges relating to protests, in mass trials that make a mockery of due process,” said Harriet McCulloch, a deputy director at human rights organisation Reprieve.

Since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power after the 2013 ouster of democratically-elected Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood – Mubarak’s successor, Egyptian authorities have cracked down on freedom of expression.

“Some were arrested as children – people like Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa, who has suffered terrible abuses in jail. The Sisi Government must now show that Egypt’s justice system is worthy of the name and release Ibrahim, and the hundreds like him,” said McCulloch.

Activists say a suspected US-led coalition air raid struck a school sheltering displaced people near ISIL-held Raqqa.

The US-led coalition says its air raids have killed 220 civilians in Iraq and Syria since 2014 [File: EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Dozens of people were killed earlier this week in a suspected US-led coalition air raid that hit a school sheltering displaced people near Raqqa, ISIL’s self-declared capital in Syria, according to a monitoring group.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday that its activists had counted at least 33 bodies at the site near the village of al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa.

The group, which monitors Syria’s war via a network of contacts on the ground, said it believed the air raid at the school-turned-shelter had been carried out by the US-led coalition fighting ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS.

The air raid took place on Monday night, SOHR head Rami Abdulrahman told the Reuters news agency.

The attack was also reported by the activist-run Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently group, which said dozens of civilians were dead or still missing after the air raid.

The US-led coalition has escalated its aerial campaign against ISIL around Raqqa this month, causing numerous civilian casualties.

Earlier this month, the coalition said its raids in Syria and Iraq had unintentionally killed at least 220 civilians since 2014. But critics say the number is far higher.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Beirut, said the school in al-Mansoura housed many refugees who had fled the fighting in Raqqa.

“This is an area where the US-led coalition has been launching air strikes to break the defence lines of ISIL in Raqqa,” he said.

“Some say that more than 30 people were killed in the strikes, other suggest that this number could be even higher.”

A spokesman for the US-led coalition has previously said that it does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties and that it investigates those that are reported as a result of its air raids.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led group of militias backed by the US-led coalition, is fighting to isolate Raqqa ahead of an anticipated assault on the city, which the ISIL group has used as a command node to plan attacks abroad.

The head of the YPG militia, the strongest in the SDF, said last week that the offensive to retake Raqqa would begin in early April but a spokesman for the US Pentagon said no decision had yet been made.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

The conflict has since escalated into a multi-front war that has facilitated the rise of armed groups and drawn in international powers, including the US.

An African Union soldier from Uganda looks out over Mogadishu’s harbor. [AFP]

by The New Arab

Turkey will join the fight to defeat Somalia’s al-Qaeda faction by building its largest ever military base abroad in the East African country.

The $50 million base in Mogadishu will open in April and will help the Somali government train 500 new troops a year to fight al-Shabaab rebels.

An on-going war with the Islamist group, al-Shabaab, coupled with a nearly three-year drought has almost crippled the country’s economy – leading to the present day’s famine.

The facility is reported to be around 400 hectares in size and will house three military camps close to Mogadishu’s airport and the Port of Mogadishu.

Turkey has reportedly invested massively in Somalia through reconstruction and infrastructure development – including roads and hospitals – and has helped provide military aid since 2011.

Turkey had planned to train and rebuild the Somali army at the Mogadishu base for years, as troops have reportedly not been professionally trained or routinely received salaries – leading to major security problems in the country.

Turkey faces regional competition in the region from the UAE, which also wants to build up its military presence in the region.

The UAE signed a deal with the Somaliland parliament in February, allowing them to open a military base in the port town of Berbera.

“The military deal with UAE is a clear sovereign matter to reach international agreements with countries and will help our long running bid for recognition as an independent country,” said chairman of the political party UCID, Faysal Ali Warabe Warabe.

The UAE recently expanded its military presence in neighbouring Eritrea, to allow more military ships and aircraft to be based in the port of Assab.

There has been plenty of help for Somalia coming from Turkey in recent weeks.

Turkish Airlines announced on Friday it would send a plane filled with aid to help the millions of people that are facing starvation.

Celebrities and social media users, united under the hashtag #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia, raised money in support of famine victims in the country.

“As the only airline that connects Somalia to the world, we’ll be more than happy to deliver your love and assistance to Somalia on your behalf,” one Turkish Airlines pilot said in a video message posted on Twitter on Friday.

A lingering drought has caused widespread food shortages across the south of Somalia, leading to an impending famine status.
UNICEF warned last month that a potential 270,000 children were at risk of severe acute malnutrition due to the drought.

The Somali prime minister tweeted on 2 March that his “priority and first emphasis” was to “assist the people affected by the severe drought and build resilience”.

Devices larger than cell phones to be banned from carry-on luggage on flights from eight Muslim-majority countries.

The ban on cary-on electronic devices will affect at least nine airlines, including Emirates and Qatar Airways [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The US is barring passengers on flights originating in eight Muslim-majority countries from carrying any electronic device bigger than a mobile phone, the Department of Homeland Security said.

Senior US officials told reporters that nine airlines from countries in the Middle East and North Africa had been given 96 hours, beginning at 7:00 GMT on Tuesday, to ban the devices from the cabin.

Laptops, e-readers, cameras, tablets, printers, electronic games and portable DVD players are affected by the ban – which applies to direct flights to the United States – but they may still be stowed in the hold in checked baggage.

The DHS said the ban was necessary as “terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation and are aggressively pursuing innovative methods to undertake their attacks, to include smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items.

“Based on this information, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Transportation Security Administrator Acting Administrator Huban Gowadia have determined it is necessary to enhance security procedures for passengers at certain last point of departure airports to the United States,” the statement said.

The ban will apply to nonstop flights to the US from 10 international airports serving the cities of Cairo in Egypt; Amman in Jordan; Kuwait City in Kuwait; Casablanca in Morocco; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Istanbul in Turkey; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, until the threat changes.

“DHS, in close cooperation with our intelligence community partners, selected these airports based on the current threat picture,” read the statement, adding that new airports could be added to the list.

“The new procedures remain in place until the threat changes.”

The procedures will affect nine airlines: Royal Jordanian Airlines, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Etihad Airways.

Electronic devices will continue to be allowed on all flights originating in the US, whether domestic or international, according to the statement. Approved medical devices may be brought into the cabin after additional screening.

The move comes a week after President Donald Trump’s second bid to curb travel from a group of Muslim-majority nations was blocked by the courts .

US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the ban was to be implemented in response to an unspecified threat the US government learned of several weeks ago.

The DHS also cited the 2015 downing of an airliner in Egypt, the 2016 attempted airliner downing in Somalia, and the 2016 armed attacks against airports in Brussels and Istanbul as evidence of groups seeking to target commercial aviation, including by attempting to smuggle explosive devices in various consumer items.

“Terrorist propaganda has highlighted the attacks against aircraft in Egypt with a soda can packed with explosives in October 2015, and in Somalia using an explosives-laden laptop in February 2016,” the DHS statement said.

“Terrorists have historically tried to hide explosives in shoes in 2001, use liquid explosives in 2006, and conceal explosives in printers in 2010 and suicide devices in underwear in 2009 and 2012. Within the last year, we have also seen attacks conducted at airports to include in Brussels and Istanbul.”

‘Baggage theft to skyrocket’

Brian Jenkins, an aviation-security expert at the Rand Corp., said there was concern about inadequate passenger screening or even conspiracies involving insiders – airport or airline employees in some countries.

Trevor Jensen, an aviation consultant and former airline captain, told Al Jazeera that keeping a large number of computers with lithium batteries in the hold also presented safety issues.

“I hope that we are not just knee-jerking here and that this is a credible threat – that the safety issues have also been very carefully thought through.”

Jensen questioned why, from a security standpoint, only some airports had been included in the measures.

“If this was a credible threat, I think they would be looking at other airports. Because, why couldn’t you fly from Doha, for example, into Zurich, and from Zurich across [to the US] … there are ways to get around it,” he said.

“Looking at some of these legs, the passengers flying on board are business people who do want to work in-flight. Security is first, but it’s got to be credible. And we’re not getting any more information to support that at the moment,” Jensen added.

Another aviation-security expert, professor Jeffrey Price of Metropolitan State University of Denver, said there was another disadvantage 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.