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It is believed the doctors have been trained at some of Britain's leading
teaching hospitals before returning to their own countries to perform the
surgical procedures.
MI5 has also discovered that extremists are inserting the explosives into
the buttocks of some male suicide bombers.
Lethal
Terrorist expert Joseph Farah claims: "Women suicide bombers recruited by
al-Qaeda are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts
under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery."
The lethal explosives called PETN are inserted inside plastic shapes during
the operation, before the breast is then sewn up.
The discovery of these methods was made after London-educated Nigerian Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab came close to blowing up an airliner in the US on
Christmas Day.
He had stuffed explosives inside his underpants.
Hours after he had failed, Britain's intelligence services began to pick up
"chatter" emanating from Pakistan and Yemen that alerted MI5 to the creation
of the lethal implants.
A hand-picked team investigated the threat which was described as "one that
can circumvent our defence".
Top surgeons have confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.
One claimed: "Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to
detect by the usual airport scanning machines.
"You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray.
"Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and
would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it
with the usual body scanner."
Explosive experts allegedly told MI5 that a sachet containing as little as
five ounces of PETN could blow "a considerable hole" in an airline's skin,
causing it to crash.
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