Washington: The US has warned thousands of utility plants that they could be attacked by extremists, news agencies reported on Thursday.
According to details the Department of Homeland Security sent out a terror alert, saying that utility plants could be the target of “violent extremists,” who probably , obtained insider positions” and might use those positions to wage physical and cyber attacks on behalf of al Qaeda.
The report warns that an insider at a major utility facility, such as a chemical or oil refinery, could help Al Qaeda wage a major attack near the anniversary date of the September 11 attacks.
Reports said the US officials found evidence among materials recovered during the May 2 US raid in Pakistan that led to killing of Osama bin Laden.
The documents recovered from Osama compound led officials to believe that the al-Qaeda chief wanted to repeat the September 11 attacks on or around its ten year anniversary.
“The only way you can actually kill the large scale number of Americans that [bin Laden] literally was calculating was through the use of this critical infrastructure,” former DHS chief of staff Chad Sweet told an American news channel.
