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A copycat plot

Owen Bowcott

London: The genesis of plans to detonate bombs simultaneously on a number of civilian airliners goes back to the so-called Bojinka plot by Islamist fundamentalists in the mid-1990s.

The alleged operation foiled in the U.K. has similarities to attacks planned in the Philippines and organised by two prominent jihadi figures: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef.

The two jihadists moved to the Philippines in 1994 to strike at the U.S. The operation they proposed relied on smuggling liquid-based explosives on board planes. The aim was to bring down a dozen flights, killing up to 4,000. The plot was foiled when a fire broke out in a Manila apartment, which had been converted into a bomb factory.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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