By Peter Heinlein | VOA
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Ethiopian Airlines officials are closely following a report that a captured terrorism suspect has told of a bomb aboard a plane that crashed off the coast of Lebanon in January. Investigators have not determined the cause more than two months after the crash.
A report on a U.S. Internet Web site says British intelligence agents have reopened their investigation into the mysterious crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet January 25. The Boeing 737 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport, killing all 90 people aboard.
News reports initially quoted witnesses as saying the plane had broken up in the air and fallen into the sea in a ball of flames. But Lebanese officials immediately ruled out terrorism, and suggested pilot error was to blame.
The “G2 Bulletin” Web site, which calls itself an independent online intelligence newsletter reports an operative of the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula told interrogators the aircraft was destroyed by a suicide bomber trained in Yemen.
The operative is said to be among more than 100 terrorism suspects recently arrested in Saudi Arabia. He is reported to have told his captors the Beirut bomber trained in the same camp as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to set off a bomb in his underwear on a plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day.
Ethiopian Airlines chief Girma Wake has been critical of what he called premature and misleading speculation about the cause of the Beirut crash. In a telephone interview, he cautioned that this latest report must be checked thoroughly. But he said it raises questions about why Lebanese politicians were so quick to rule out foul play and blame pilot error.
“The very fact the Lebanese authorities were saying the aircraft exploded in the air, or when they say there was a trace of fire as it was coming down. All this leads you to check it. I’m not saying that is the cause, but it leads you to check this,” said Girma.
Girma declined to say what he thinks the cause may have been. He said, ‘if you rush to conclusions, they will be the wrong conclusions.’
News reports from Saudi Arabia say the recently arrested terrorism suspects were part of a network of al-Qaida-affiliated radicals that included two suicide bombing cells.
Mahboub Maalim, head of the six-nation East African regional economic group known as IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), says al-Qaida-linked terror cells in the Arabian Peninsula are working with like-minded groups in the Horn of Africa.
“We’re almost certain in Somalia the group al-Shabab is not a Somali group any more, and we think a lot of other nationalities are there in the name of that cell, the al-Qaida cell, and definitely we feel there is also a link with the group in Yemen,” note Maalim.
A statement from the Saudi interior ministry last week said the recently arrested terrorism suspects were plotting attacks on oil and security installations. Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter.
There has been little speculation about any terrorism motive in connection with the Ethiopian Airlines crash. But experts have noted that the crash occurred almost exactly five years after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, after whom Beirut’s airport is named.
A Special Tribunal into the Hariri killing is reported nearing a conclusion that would bring the perpetrators to justice. An earlier United Nations backed probe said it had found evidence implicating senior officials of the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services.
7 thoughts on “Captured suspect talks about a bomb abroad Ethiopian jet”
We need to be careful as these days terrorism has become a convenient excuse for state terrorism by powerful countries. They are eager to label anything with that phrase in order to materialize a fictional war which aims at subjugating the global population. We at the horn have been visited by enough american drones.
Selam
Peace
May the soul of the victims rest in peace and may their relatives find strength.
Peace.
We’ve always known the fact that the plane fell into the sea in a ball of fire. The eye witness who was on a gas station tells his interviewers he saw the plane in a ball fire before it hit the water.
The Lebanese official was trying to make it look as if the fault was due to “pilot error,” while we knew from the interview the rain and lightnnig was not as bad as they described it to be, if it was bad, the man in the gas station would have closed his gas station for fear of possible danger, but it myust have been okay for him to be doing his work, hence the weather condition cannot be the reason for the plane to fall off the air in a ball of fire.
The problem we do not know is, who planted the explosive on? We think it’s the ruling party in Ethiopia, they are the only one that would have access to the interior of the plane. Because the plane came few hours before it returned back to Ethiopia. Therefore, terrorists would not have enough time to plant the explosive. It’s possible for a luggage to have contained explosive. But then again security at the airport would have found it. So, the only potential criminal here is the ruling party in Ethiopia.
They are known to do those tings in the past, and people are suspected based on their past behavior, hence let’s not forget the ruling party’s practices is highly suspecious.
Ethiopia has no government of its own. So no one cares about the victims of this terrorist act.
The people in power in Ethiopia are a bunch of Mafia thugs amassing stolen money from the poor and they don’t have time or interest to get to the bottom of this crime.
But one thing must be clear for these criminal thugs in power. Like the terriorsts they are also responsible for the innocent lives lost. As they will answer for all their crimes in the last 18 years, they will also answer for this crime: Negligence in carrying out their government duty by being careless for a mass mrder of Ethiopian citizens outside the home soil.
I strongly do not believe this is the case. If it was like that the group who did this would have taken a responsibility. Its like announcing the victory for them. Once again this is a hearsay!
i do not think the Ethiopian government will pressurize and confront with different groups to know the exact cause of the accident
Neither the airline nor the government cares about these victims. If the majority of victims were westerners, more actions would have been taken by now. I hope somedays the truth will come out.