Britain suspends Yemen flights on threat fears

Britain has suspended direct flights from Yemen as part of a wave of measures to tighten up border security, prime minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday, warning that militant cells were actively planning attacks.                                           

The move follows the failed Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound airliner for which a Yemen-based al Qaeda affiliate has claimed responsibility.                                           

Greater scrutiny of suspect airline passengers and closer global cooperation announced by Brown are aimed at preventing a repetition of intelligence mistakes that allowed the Nigerian suspect in the Detroit plot, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to board a flight to the United States.                                           

"We know that a number of terrorist cells are actively trying to attack Britain and other countries," Brown told parliament.                                           

Brown said Britain had agreed with Yemeni airlines Yemenia to suspend direct flights to London until security was improved.                                           

A Yemenia official told Reuters in Sanaa that British officials had requested that Yemenia, if it wants to fly to Britain, must first stop in a third country for security checks. He said no other countries had suspended direct flights.                                           

Britain would strengthen its protection against would-be attackers by extending a government watchlist and improving information-sharing with other countries on "individuals of concern", Brown said.                                                                                   

'No fly' list                                           

The expanded British watchlist would be used as the basis for two new lists -- a list of people who would not be allowed to fly and a larger list of people who should be subject to special measures including enhanced screening before boarding flights bound for Britain, he said.                                           

"We will use the new technology we have introduced and our partnerships with police and agencies in other countries to stop those who pose the greatest risk from travelling to this country," he said.                                           

Britain was pushing for swift agreement within the European Union on collecting and processing data on passenger records, Brown said.                                           

Britain has already announced that full body scanners will be set up at London's Heathrow Airport within weeks.                                           

US officials say Abdulmutallab told investigators he was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen. A senior Yemeni official said this month the suspect was recruited by al Qaeda in London.                                           

Britain's security service was aware of Abdulmutallab when he studied engineering in London between 2005 and 2008, although he was not seen as someone engaged with violent extremism, interior minister Alan Johnson said this month.                                           

His name was added to a watchlist compiled by immigration officials, rather than anti-terrorism officers, after he applied in April this year to study at a London college that was not accredited to accept overseas students.                                           

Brown's spokesman has said Britain passed security information on Abdulmutallab''s activities to the United States, raising questions about whether US officials failed to act on that intelligence.                                           

US president Barack Obama, who spoke to Brown by phone on Tuesday, has said the Christmas Day plot was a potentially disastrous "screw-up" by the intelligence community.                                           

Abdulmutallab's name was in a US database of about 550,000 people with suspected terrorist links but was not on a list that would have subjected him to additional security screening or kept him from boarding the flight.