WASHINGTON — Intelligence showing that the Islamic State is developing a bomb hidden in portable electronics spurred the United States and Britain on Tuesday to bar passengers from airports in a total of eight Middle Eastern and North African countries from carrying laptop computers, iPads, and other devices larger than a cellphone aboard direct inbound flights, two senior US counterterrorism officials said.
Two additional US officials said the explosives were designed to be hidden in laptop batteries. All four spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive information.
The Trump administration maintained that the new restrictions did not signal a credible, specific threat of an imminent attack. Officials said the alert reflects concerns that the Islamic State is ready — or soon will be — to launch new capabilities against the West. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, declined to address the intelligence during a news media briefing on Tuesday.
Hours after the US action, the British government announced its own ban on electronic devices on flights.
Officials said passengers still could carry cellphones and other small devices into the airplane’s cabin, while larger items like laptops would have to be stowed with checked luggage.
The targeting of a jetliner using explosives shows how the Islamic State, which has long worked to inspire terrorist attacks, is trying to compete with groups like Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. The Qaeda affiliate has spent years inventing explosives that are difficult to detect, including trying to disguise bombs in devices like cellphones. Now, US intelligence officials believe the Islamic State has also developed explosives that can be hidden in electronic devices, one of the senior counterterror officials said.
Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, who sits on the House Intelligence and Homeland Security committees, said that government officials had called him on Saturday to alert him to the impending ban.
“It was based on intelligence reports that are fairly recent,’’ King said in a telephone interview. “Intelligence of something possibly planned.’’
The Department of Homeland Security said the restricted items on flights to the United States included laptop computers, tablets, cameras, travel printers, and games bigger than a phone. The restrictions would not apply to aircraft crews, officials said in a briefing to reporters Monday night that outlined the terms.
The new policy took effect at 3 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, and must be followed within 96 hours by airlines flying to the United States from airports in Amman, Jordan; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia; Kuwait City; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Some travelers and civil liberties groups denounced the ban, raising concerns that included lost worktime on long flights and worries that checking laptops in baggage will make them more vulnerable to theft.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has fought President Trump’s travel restrictions in federal court, suggested the new ban was simply another way to target Muslim travelers to the United States.
Banu Akdenizli, an associate professor of communication at Northwestern University’s campus in Doha, complained that the ban would affect her ability to work during a long flight to Greensboro, N.C., for a conference in April.
“To be honest with you, my immediate thought was this: This is a 20-hour flight,’’ she said. “I think as an academic or any business traveler, the function of a work flight is to be able to work on it, especially if you’re going to a conference.’’
Osama Sharshar, a prominent Egyptian lawmaker and journalist who frequently travels to the United States, was critical of the changes and suggested Trump issued the order simply to “please the right-wing extremists in America.’’
“It will terribly affect me as a journalist, a lawmaker, and a regular Egyptian,’’ he said. “I work on planes all the time. And the flight to the States is very long. What are people supposed to do for 14 or so hours?’’
The US ban on electronics applies only to flights on foreign carriers, and not US-operated airlines, which do not fly directly to the United States from the designated airports. Officials did not say how long the ban would remain in place or if other airports would be added.
In all, an estimated 50 flights each day into the United States would be affected. One of the world’s busiest airports, in Abu Dhabi, already requires US-bound passengers to undergo strict screening by US customs officials before boarding flights. Abu Dhabi is one of 15 airports in the world to employ the Homeland Security preclearance techniques.
The British ban affects domestic and foreign airlines, including British Airways, the country’s largest.
Foreign airlines affected by the order include Turkish Airlines, EgyptAir, and Royal Jordanian, among others, and it affects direct flights to the United Kingdom from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.
Examples of attacks by extremist groups against transportation hubs over the past two years include the May 2015 bombing of an airliner in Egypt, the attempted airliner downing in Somalia last year, and the armed attacks against airports in Brussels and Istanbul, which were also carried out in 2016.
The Homeland Security Department’s new ban appeared to take officials from the affected countries by surprise.
Ahmet Arslan, Turkey’s transport, maritime and communication minister, said the ban would be harmful to the United States’ airline industry and to Turkey’s.
“Our problem is not how the practice would take place,’’ Arslan said. “The issue is it can decrease the comfort of the passengers and reduce the numbers of passengers. We are emphasizing that this is not in the benefit of passengers, and we think that they should step back from this or ease it.’’
Counterterrorism experts seemed equally divided over the need for the device ban.
Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, said the new policy made sense given the threats to aircraft from explosive devices and concerns about screening at the targeted airports.
“The challenge is to balance security without making it impossible to fly,’’ Chertoff said.
But Erroll Southers, director of the Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies Program at the University of Southern California, said the new guidance would do little to enhance security.
