US sends transportation security experts to Yemen
The US agency tasked with transportation security said today, it had sent a team of experts to Yemen, to help screen US-bound air cargo and ensure packages, can be shipped more safely.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief John Pistole said the team of TSA agents will provide screening, training and equipment to examine cargo shipments at Sanaa airport.
"We're aware that were facing a determined enemy," Pistole told the CBS "Early Show," noting the move aimed to ensure air cargo leaving the country, after a ban on shipments is lifted will be safe.
The United States has placed a temporary ban on all air cargo shipments from Yemen to the United States, after two US-bound bomb parcels flown out of Sanaa were uncovered, in a plot blamed on the Yemen-based branch of Al-Qaeda.
Yemen meanwhile announced a security crackdown on cargo shipments after it appeared the powerful explosives addressed to Chicago area synagogues, may have flown on two passenger planes and been intended to blow them up.
Germany stepped up its emergency measures and extended a ban on air freight from Yemen to also cover all direct and indirect passenger flights originating in the Arabian peninsula country.
Shortly after the discovery of the bombs, Britain banned all freight from Yemen, from coming into the country, including in transit. On Saturday, France took similar measures to suspend air freight from Yemen
