Donald Trump bans Muslim countries from carrying laptops and iPads as cabin baggage

Trump administration rolls out another ban barring passengers to US from 8 Muslim-majority countries from carrying devices bigger than smartphones as cabin baggage

All laptops, cameras, tablets, e-readers, portable DVD players, electronic gaming devices and travel printers will have to be kept in the cargo hold for the duration of the flight. REPRESENTATIONâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088PIC/AFP

Washington: Passengers travelling to the US from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries, including from global hubs like Dubai, cannot carry large electronic devices like cameras and laptops as cabin baggage under a new Trump administration order yesterday, citing terrorism concerns.

According to the tough security restrictions, passengers will have to check in any devices bigger than a smartphone - including iPads, Kindles and laptops - before clearing security or boarding, US officials said. The 10 international airports covered by the ban are in Cairo, Egypt; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE; Istanbul, Turkey; Doha, Qatar; Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City; Casablanca, Morocco; and Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nine airlines have are also covered under the ban and have 96 hours to comply.

CNN quoted one senior US official as saying that the move is partly based on intelligence that they believe indicates Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is close to being able to hide explosives with little or no metal content in electronic devices in order to target commercial aircraft.

The officials said US carriers are not affected because none of them fly from the airports in question to the US.

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