More than 20 people arrested over Somali jetliner

Somali security officials arrested more than twenty people including one of the two men seen in the CCTV footage and other aviation officials.

Somali government’s spokesman Abdisalam Atto confirmed the arrests, aviation officials they believe planned the bomb attack that was intended to bring down a Daallo Airlines flight last week.

The aircraft A321 flight was approximately 15 minutes in the air when the bombing incident happened on Feb. 2, causing a hole in the fuselage.

Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle’s  body was found in the town of Balad, 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu, according to police who said he might have been blown from the plane.

The suspected suicide bomber who sucked out of a passenger plane last week after a bomb a hole in the fuselage has been identified as Abdullahi Abdisalam.

The spokesman pointed out the Somali government would take appropriate action within the course of 36 hours.

Somali Police Commissioner Gen. Mohamed Hassan Hamud said the attackers used laptop to carry out the attack inside the plane.

“Laptop computer was used during the attack inside the plane, special experts are still examining the case,” Hamud said in Mogadishu.

He said more security officers have been deployed to the airport, noting that the officers are under firm instruction to remain vigilant at all times.

Transport Minister Ahmed Jama told journalists that investigators had established a bomb had been planted on the Djibouti bound airline.

The Serb pilot who landed a jetliner in Somalia with a three-foot hole on its fuselage said Sunday he never doubted that it was caused by a bomb and describes the security surround the airplane at Mogadishu Airport as “zero.”

“If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the explosion,” said pilot Vlatko Vodopivec.