US authorities said last night they had received intelligence in recent weeks suggesting that al Qaeda was interested in using commercial cargo planes to attack American facilities.
While the information was not so specific as to identify a date, time or place for such an attack, it indicated that Osama bin Laden's network was interested in using cargo planes against American targets, possibly inside the United States.
"There is threat information pointing to that as a possible means they might use, including in this country," the official said.
"There is nothing specific, but there is interest on their part in possibly using this (cargo plane) as a means to launch an attack against US facilities," he said.
The cargo plane threat was revealed a day after the US State Department updated its warning on travel to the Middle East to say that ships and planes could be hijacked in the region.
The possible threat to ships and planes covered the whole of the Middle East, including the Red Sea, Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, the State Department said.