UNITED NATIONS: Iraqi Prime Minis­ter Haider al-Abadi warned the United States on Thursday that his intelligence agencies had uncovered a plot to target an underground railways system in America.

Talking to reporters at the United Nations, Mr Abadi said the Islamic State group was behind the plot.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, Caitlin Hayden, said that US intelligence agencies were still trying to confirm the report.

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“We’ve seen the reports of Prime Minister Abadi’s comments. We have not confirmed such a plot, and would have to review any information from our Iraqi partners before making further determinations,” she said in a statement issued by her office.

“We take any threat seriously and always work to corroborate information we receive from our partners. We’re obviously very focused on the issue of foreign fighters”, she added.

Mr Abadi, who became Iraq’s prime minister only two weeks ago, said his government had alerted US officials, because the attack appeared to be ‘imminent’.

Mr Abadi claimed that the IS group was also working on a plan to attack the Paris Metro.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2014