by Donald Wood
Last updated: 6:45 PM ET, Mon August 21, 2017
More details about a foiled terrorist plot were revealed Monday as Lebanese officials said the suspects attempted to smuggle a Barbie doll and meat grinder packed with explosives aboard an Etihad Airways flight in July.
According to The Associated Press, four Lebanese-Australian brothers were allegedly behind a massive terror plot that was abandoned on July 15 when the luggage containing the bombs weighed about 15 pounds over Etihad's limit.
Lebanon's interior minister Nouhad Machnouk revealed that two of the brothers, Khaled and Mahmoud Khayyat, were arrested July 29 and are being held in Australia after they attempted to bring the explosive devices on a flight from Sydney. Their brother Amer was supposed to board the plane and detonate the bombs 20 minutes into the flight. He was arrested in Lebanon in July.
"The operation was foiled because of the extra weight," Machnouk said in a statement. "Intelligence branch followed on the case and found that Amer was involved in this act and it appears that he was supposed to carry it out."
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Another brother, Tarek Khayyat, is a senior member of the Islamic State terror group based in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. ISIS leaders commanded the group to carry out the attack, but it was abandoned when the luggage was deemed too heavy.
Machnouk also went on to say the Etihad Airways flight the men planned to bomb was carrying around 400 passengers, including 120 Lebanese people. The four brothers planned and attempted to carry out the attack in retaliation for Australia's role in the war against terror.
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