New missile threat to planes

THE UNITED STATES was urgently investigating last night whether Islamist militants in northern Iraq had obtained surface-to-air missiles, as it emerged that thousands of passengers fly over the conflict zone every day.

Intelligence sources said there was a ‘‘ real concern’’ that Isis fighters had acquired the technology from Syrian stockpiles capable of downing a commercial airliner.

The Pentagon has ordered American special forces in Iraq to confirm whether Isis possesses weapons capable of hitting an aircraft at 30,000ft or higher.

The revelation came as an investigation by The Times found that major airlines, including British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa and Qantas, fly over the Isis-held area of Iraq every day.

A particularly popular route from London to Asia passes directly above the city of Mosul, a key stronghold in the militants’ self- declared Islamic caliphate. The extremist group, which includes hundreds of British jihadists, is accused of bloody massacres, beheadings and crucifixions and regards the West as its enemy.

Iraqi authorities and civilian airlines believe the flight path to be safe but the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine last week has heightened concern about the wisdom of flying over areas of unrest instead of using additional fuel to travel around them.

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams, a former SAS commander, said that civilian jets should not fly over active war zones with a history of using high- altitude air defence systems.

He said it was ‘‘perfectly possible’’ that Isis had seized such missile systems from the Assad regime in neighbouring Syria. ‘‘ They may also have skilled operators, given the amount of defectors from the Syrian regime and the old Iraqi army staff that will be around. I would like someone to show me that they don’t have them, rather than wait to be proved wrong,’’ Colonel Williams said.

There are also concerns about flight paths that take passengers across other conflict zones, including Mali, Afghanistan and the northwest tribal regions of Pakistan. The International Civil Aviation Organisation, a UN agency that oversees aviation, will hold a meeting this week in Canada to discuss how to reduce the risk.

Regular British Airways flights over northern Iraq include BA106 from Dubai to Heathrow and BA2042 from the Maldives to Gatwick, according to data by a website that plots the course of airliners.