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Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq tried to unleash deadly terror in the skies by deploying a pair of kamikaze canines on a US-bound plane, a French newspaper reports.

The diabolical plot failed because the bombs were so badly stitched inside the poor pooches that they died, said the respected Paris daily Le Figaro.

“This case illustrates the determination of al Qaeda militants, who are trying to circumvent terrorism controls by any means,” French criminologist Christophe Naudin, an aviation security expert, told the newspaper.

YEMEN MANHUNT

The plot unfolded two years ago, when al Qaeda bomb makers grabbed the two stray dogs off the street and surgically implanted powerful explosives and detonators in each.

The dogs were then placed in kennel carriers and sent to the Baghdad airport for a flight to the US. Le Figaro didn’t say what city they were headed for.

It’s not unusual for dogs to fly from Iraq to the US. Several animal-rescue groups work to give Iraqi dogs new US homes, and US soldiers have also adopted pooches there.

It’s believed al Qaeda planned for the dogs to explode in flight.

But before the dogs were put aboard their plane, US soldiers working in the airport’s cargo area noticed they had died — and soon discovered the bombs stitched inside them.

US intelligence agencies shared the story of the dogs’ cruel fate with other Western spy agencies and distributed necropsy photos of the dogs and bombs to aviation security professionals, Le Figaro said.

Also, the International Civil Aviation Organization alerted security agencies around the world of the possibility of kamikaze canine attacks.

Details are still emerging of last month’s terror plot in which Yemeni al Qaeda operatives stashed bombs inside computer printer cartridges, which they hoped to blow up aboard US-bound cargo jets.

That plot unraveled when Muhammad bin Nayef, a Saudi prince involved in intelligence work, learned of the plan and the packages’ tracking numbers and passed them on to the CIA.

Just as they tried to hide bombs in dogs’ bodies, al Qaeda has also tried hiding bombs inside people.

Last year, an al Qaeda suicide bomber tried to assassinate bin Nayef with an explosive device hidden in his rectum like a suppository. Bin Nayef was slightly injured in the attack.

bill.sanderson@nypost.com

