Iraq Says It Foiled New Al-Qaeda Plot to Use Toy Planes to Drop Chemical Weapons Over North America and Europe

Image source: Reuters

Iraq officials say they have thwarted an Al-Qaeda plot to use remote-controlled toy planes to drop chemical agents, including sarin and mustard gas, over Europe and North America, the BBC is reporting.

An Iraq defense spokesman said five men were arrested after military intelligence tracked them for three months.

Spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said three workshops for manufacturing chemical agents were discovered, and that toy planes were seized on site.

From the BBC:

Mr Askari said they were to have been used to release the chemical agents over the target from a "safe" distance of 1.5km (1 mile), reports the BBC's Rami Ruhayem in Baghdad.

All of the arrested men had confessed to the plot and said they had received instruction from another al-Qaeda offshoot, he added.

Image source: Reuters

As the defence ministry spokesman spoke on Iraqi TV, footage was shown of four men with black hoods on their heads, our correspondent adds.

Three of them were wearing bright yellow jumpsuits and a fourth was in a brown jumpsuit.

Their arrests were possible because of co-operation between Iraqi and foreign intelligence services, Mr Askari said.

It's not the first report of Al-Qaeda efforts to use toy planes to wage terror: American citizen Rezwan Ferdaus is serving time in federal prison for planning to attach explosives to model airplanes and attack the U.S. Capitol in 2011. Last year, Spain officials disrupted a similar attack planned for Europe.