DAMASCUS, 18 November 2005 — Syria is questioning several passengers who attempted to board a Gulf Air flight to Bahrain this week with a dismantled weapon concealed in their luggage, official and aviation sources said yesterday.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said earlier yesterday four Australian women of Iraqi origin had been detained in Syria after a dismantled handgun was discovered as they tried to board the plane in Damascus.
A Syrian official refused to say if the passengers were suspected of attempting to hijack the airliner, but said: "There is an investigation involving several passengers."
A source familiar with the case said investigators were also examining the authenticity of the passengers' passports. "The passports need to be examined before anything can be said about nationalities."
An aviation executive in the region said seven Iraqi passengers, apparently from the same family, had one or more disassembled weapon in their luggage and were arrested before boarding the Bahrain-bound aircraft on Tuesday.
"According to the information I received, they were seven Iraqis from the same family but a few of them had foreign passports...Australian I think," the aviation executive, who spoke on terms of anonymity, told Reuters by telephone.
"It appears to me as a possible hijacking attempt, but I am not a security official," the executive added. "I am very happy that the Syrian authorities were vigilant as it appears that the way the weapons were concealed was very hard to notice."
Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) radio said the dismantled gun was found in a child's toy and that the women were traveling to Australia via a stopover in Bahrain accompanied by a young child.
The sources said the Manama-bound flight was delayed for about two hours while security personnel inspected the aircraft.
