Mashnouq Says Lebanon Helped Foil Plot to Down Plane in Australia

Lebanese Interior Minister Nuhad al-Mashnouq said Monday that the Internal Security Force’s Information Branch has played a major role in foiling a plot to bring down an Emirati passenger plane that was supposed to take off from Australia.

Mashnouq told reporters that four Lebanese-Australian brothers from the Khayyat family, including one who is in detention in Lebanon, had plotted to blow up the plane with a bomb hidden inside a large Barbie doll.

The man detained in Lebanon is Amer Khayyet.

Mashnouq said two other brothers are held in Australia while the fourth is a senior ISIS member based in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa.

Australian authorities have said they thwarted a credible terrorist plot to down an Etihad Airways flight by smuggling a device onboard. They have provided few details, including the precise nature of the threat.

However, the authorities described it as an ISIS-inspired plot to bomb the plane.

According to Mashnouq, the Etihad Airways plane was carrying 120 Lebanese passengers out of 400 on board.