CIA director says its 'not that difficult to make a suicide vest'

Further Istanbul-style airport attacks are likely being plotted by Isis and would not be hard to carry out as making suicide vests is “not that difficult”, the CIA director has said.

John Brennan made the comments in the aftermath of the bombings on Ataturk airport, which killed 41 people and injured more than 200 more.

Extremist jihadi group Isis has been blamed by the Turkish government.

“You look at what happened in the Turkish airport, these were suicide vests,” Mr Brennan told Yahoo News.

“It’s not that difficult to actually construct and fabricate a suicide vest … so if you have a determined enemy and individuals who are not concerned about escape, that they are going into it with a sense that they are going to die, that really does complicate your strategy in terms of preventing attacks.”

Earlier this year, images emerged online of what appeared to be a potential suicide bomber in Iraq being apprehended by security services. The device is strapped to his body using just cling film.

The nature of suicide attacks means they are very difficult and dangerous to prevent and have confounded security services for years.

Isis are also likely to plan a similar attack in the US, Mr Brennan said.

“I’d be surprised if Daesh is not trying to carry out that kind of attack in the United States,” he said.

“I am worried from the standpoint of an intelligence professional who looks at the capabilities of Daesh … and their determination to kill as many as people as possible and to carry out attacks abroad.”

Mr Brennan has also expressed concern over the potential impact of Brexit on security and stability.

“Of all the crises the EU has faced in recent years, the UK vote to leave the EU may well be its greatest challenge,” he told an audience in Washington, the Guardian reported.

“Brexit is pushing the EU into a period of introspection that will pervade virtually everything the EU does in the coming weeks, months and even years ahead.”

He said this reflection could come at the expense of collaboration on security. The vote to leave represented a major change in the global structure which was defined during the Cold War, Mr Brennan said.

Despite this, he insisted that a good intelligence relationship with Britain could be maintained.

He said: “I spoke to my counterpart in London early Monday morning and we reaffirmed to one another that the bonds of friendship and cooperation between our services are only destined to grow stronger in the years ahead.

“These ties are and will always be essential to our collective security.”