Al Qaida 'working on cuddly toy bomb'

Al Qaida terrorists are training to use a chemical-based bomb which could be stuffed into clothes, pillows or toys and smuggled on board an airliner, it was reported today.

United States intelligence officials warned that the terror network had showed a “persistence” in trying to master the explosive technique.

The bomb can be made by combining a number of easily obtainable chemical products.

Modified buttons, zips or wristwatches could be used as detonators.

Airport security staff and airlines worldwide were warned of the new al Qaida threat by the US Department of Homeland Security in August, the Washington Post reported.

“We judge this type of threat to be real and continuing,” the department said in the warning, which was obtained by the newspaper.

The document added that there had been a “persistence (in a) line of reports from several credible, independent sources” that al Qaida was training to build such bombs.

Part of the intelligence came from confiscated al Qaida training manuals.

While small amounts of the substance called nitrocellulose would only flare up momentarily, larger amounts are explosive if tightly packed into a confined space.

Airport X-ray machines cannot detect the explosive but another type of technology, called a trace-detection machine, can.

A specially treated cotton swab is run across an item of luggage or clothing and inserted into a detector machine which gives a positive or negative result.

Several thousand of the kits have been purchased by the Homeland Security Department’s Transportation Security Administration in the past year.

They will be used to examine not only passengers’ hand baggage, but also checked-in luggage.