Russia aims to upset Western confidence if it is proven to be behind an incendiary device plot that caused two packages to catch fire at DHL facilities in Birmingham and Leipzig in July, an expert has claimed.
The dangerous packages are not believed to be sophisticated, but in both cases they appear to have bypassed security checks. German authorities warned this week that a plane could have been shot down if a device had ignited during air transport.
Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Affiliation, which represents the air transport industry in the United States, described the firebombing incidents as puzzling given suspicions of Russian state involvement.
“It seems like the goal is just to disrupt the supply chain, create chaos and just scare people. They want people to lose trust in the system,” Fried said, adding that the industry had developed robust and evolving security procedures since 9/11.
Britain's counter-terrorism police are investigating whether the Birmingham incident is linked to the Leipzig incident, amid strong belief that the incendiary devices were the work of Russian spies.
The package that caught fire at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham on July 22 appears to have traveled by plane before arriving in the UK. No one was injured and the incident, first reported by The Guardian, was attended to by fire crews and staff.
The German package started burning as it was about to be loaded onto a plane in Leipzig in late July, German media reported, and the head of the country's national intelligence service warned on Monday that it could have brought down a plane.
Security sources said questions about how packages arrived at DHL sites were an issue for the courier company, given security procedures in place at airports to prevent explosives and fire-starting devices from reaching planes. .
DHL said in a statement Thursday that it employed “strict security measures throughout our global network” and that it worked “in full compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and procedures.”
German authorities warned in late August about “unconventional incendiary devices” that appeared to have been launched by private individuals and that “caught fire… in several European countries.” They said there could be more attacks in an effort to damage logistics across Europe.
Intelligence agencies across Europe have been warning of a growing number of arson, sabotage and even assassination plots carried out by Russian intelligence, in an attempt to sow discord among Ukraine's Western supporters.
Last week, Ken McCallum, head of MI5, warned that Russian GRU military intelligence appeared to be on “a sustained mission to create chaos on British and European streets” and accused the Kremlin of being involved in “dangerous actions carried out with increasing recklessness.” .
Incendiary devices are generally considered to be relatively unsophisticated compared to explosives, so their construction may not have required a high level of technical knowledge. According to German investigators, all suspicious packages found so far contained electrical devices or containers with liquids.
Ffq">Source link