Investigators
suspect he carried a laptop computer with a bomb concealed onto the
plane, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The
source said Borleh apparently knew precisely where to sit and how to
place the device to maximize damage. The source said, given the
placement, the blast likely would have set off a catastrophic secondary
explosion in the fuel tank had the aircraft reached cruising altitude.
The
source added that investigators believe the attack was orchestrated by
the al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab, although they are not certain that
Borleh was a direct member of the group. No group immediately took
responsibility for the act.
The
bomb contained a military grade of the explosive TNT, according to the
source, citing an initial analysis of residue recovered from the
aircraft.
The blast happened Tuesday on Daallo Airlines Flight 3159 after it set off above East Africa.
Two
people were injured before the pilot landed the Airbus A321-111 safely,
a passenger said. Somali authorities later discovered a body near
Mogadishu they believe fell from plane.
Pictures
from the ground showed a hole in one side of the airliner, just above
its wing and slightly smaller than one of its doors.
An
airport official estimated the Daallo plane was between 12,000 and
14,000 feet high when the blast occurred not long after it took off from
Mogadishu International Airport.
The pilot then flew the plane, which had originated in Jeddah on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, back to the Somali capital.
Al-Shabaab has been behind some of the worst violence in recent years in and around Somalia.
Some
of it targeted tourists, such as last month's deadly attack on a
beachside restaurant-hotel complex in Mogadishu. Young people also have
been targets, as shown in the massacre at Kenya's Garissa University
College. The general public also hasn't escaped the group's violence, as
evidenced in a 2013 assault on an upscale mall in Nairobi.
CNN
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