BOMB-laden drones will cause the next 9/11 style terror attack if the United States doesn't wake up to the threat, a top military official has warned.

The military chief, who asked to remain anonymous, told Newsweek that a nightmare scenario involving small drones could "potentially be in play".

"I kind of wonder what could you do if you had a couple of small UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] and you flew into a crowded stadium," the U.S official told Newsweek.

"That could cause a lot of damage and it's a scenario that could potentially be in play."

The chief went on to explain how before 9/11 the idea of an aerial attack was only associated with the Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War II.

And that Tom Clancy's 1994 thriller "Debt of Honor" – about a hijacked plane crashing to the U.S Capitol – was just a made-up story until the September 11 terror attacks.

"It's just like I had no specific knowledge before 9/11 that people could hijack planes and crash into buildings, but Tom Clancy wrote a book about it," the U.S. military official said.

There is "no specific knowledge" of an active threat, the official confirmed, however, there is a concern "given the proliferation of small, portable drones, that explosive drones could cause a mass casualty event."

But in the years since 9/11, drones have become cheaper, smarter and more accessible to terrorist organisations.

An Israeli security official noted however that although drones have destructive potential, they are in their "relative infancy" and those alone could not replicate a 9/11-style attack.

"They are becoming much more accurate in their capabilities of navigation," the Israeli security official said.

"I think where we will be seeing things is that the amount of explosives will get bigger now."

Dones have evolved into "an emergent threat", the military chief told Newsweek and have already been used in previous acts of high-profile warfare.

Last weekend, three drones carrying explosives are believed to have targeted the Iraqi Prime Minister's residence in an assassination attempt.

But Kadhimi wasn't the first world leader to have been targeted by a drone.

'EMERGENT THREAT'

In 2018, two drones carrying explosives targeted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro but he managed to escape with his life.

In February, Iranian-backed Houthi reveals used bomb-laden droned to attack a Saudi airport.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack soon afterwards, with military spokesman Yehia Sareai saying the group used four drones – loaded with bombs – to target Abha airport.

"This targeting comes in response to the continued aerial bombardment and the brutal siege on our country," Sareai said.

In 2016, the then Foreign Office Minister Baroness Anelay said that there was growing proof that IS jihadis were using off-the-shelf drones to carry makeshift bombs.

“The Government has evidence that Daesh has used small, commercially available unmanned aerial vehicles in Syria and Iraq to extend their surveillance capability, produce propaganda material and carry small improvised explosive devices," she revealed.

A former NATO chemical weapons expert also claimed that the killer drones could be fitted with World War I mustard gas.

"These types of drones could carry up to 5kg so a bomb that size could kill a few people," Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told The Daily Mail.

"They could also put a chlorine or a mustard gas agent on it."

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