Possible Bomb attack in London

[Tgace]

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2005/07/13/afx2137878.html

LONDON (AFX) - British police have identified the man thought to be the mastermind of last week's bombings in London in which at least 52 people died, a report said.

The British-born man in his 30s, of Pakistani origin, arrived at a British port last month and left the country again the day before Thursday's attacks, The Times newspaper reported.

The suspected suicide bombers were also Britons of Pakistani origin.

According to The Times, security sources say they believe the mastermind was involved with previous terror operations and had links with followers of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda extremist group in the US.

It was believed he had visited the bombers in their home city of Leeds, and also identified targets on the London underground rail subway system, where three of the four bombs exploded, the paper said.

Security sources also said he was likely to have trained the recruits in how to trigger their rucksack-carried bombs, three of which went off almost simultaneously at the peak of Thursday morning's rush hour.

Police have reportedly switched their investigation towards seeking the mastermind of the attacks since learning that the four bombers killed themselves in the attacks.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said earlier that the aim was now 'to attack the people who are driving, organizing and manipulating' bombers.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...954_RTRUKOC_0_SECURITY-BRITAIN-MASTERMIND.xml

LONDON (Reuters) - Suicide attacks on London showed a level of calculation and technical know-how that strongly suggests a mastermind and support network behind the four young British bombers, security experts said on Wednesday.

Police suspect four young men of Pakistani origin carried the bombs that exploded last Thursday aboard three underground trains and a bus, killing at least 52 people including themselves.

"I would be surprised if this was something that was generated in someone's flat outside of London in a small Pakistani community," said former CIA official Nick Pratt, a terrorism expert at the Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany.

"To be able to pull something like this off, to get a hold of the explosives, it strikes me as implausible that it would be just four singletons working by themselves."

Police have said the bombs were made with high explosives and a French official in touch with the investigation said these were of military origin. Investigators discovered more explosives in raids on Tuesday.
....
Clearly there will be people behind this group and involved in this and clearly we are seeking those people," a police spokesman said. "The assumption has got to be they weren't acting alone."

Pratt said the modus operandi of al Qaeda-type groups typically involved planning and logistics operatives in the background.

"The way I have seen these cells work, you have a logistics cell, you've got someone who deals with transportation, you've got a security cell ... The one thing that gets uncovered is the actual operator cell, the guys that pull the bombing off."

Hmm..doesnt sound like a Tim McVeigh situation to me.

 

[Flatlander]

‘London, Tel Aviv blasts connected’

fter analyzing the explosive material used in the Mike’s Place attack, the Mossad concluded it was produced in China and later smuggled into Britain, the paper reports. The explosives were apparently stashed by terrorists connected to al-Qaeda who were able to evade raids by British security forces.

The Mossad was also able to determine the substance was developed and produced at the Chinese ZDF arms factory, located about 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) from Beijing, the paper reports.

Related Article on the new explosive, ZDF, China connection.

 

[michaeledward]

This news report has been in the foreign papers for a couple of days now. Some of the reports indicate that the United States is skeptical of the claim. But, in fairness, as some felt my calls for patience, and recognition of local bombers was prejudiced (and perhaps it was), I thought I would add this report here.

Seems al Qaeda is claiming responsibility. And more importantly, there are some threats of future action in Europe.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050901144209990015

Al-Qaida Threatens Attacks in Europe
London Suicide Attacker Appears on Tape With bin Laden Ally
CAIRO, Egypt (Sept. 1) - One of the four suicide attackers who bombed London's transit system on July 7 made a dramatic farewell in a videotape broadcast Thursday that also included a warning of more bloodshed from al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.

Speaking English, Mohammad Sidique Khan, a Briton of Pakistani ancestry, said Westerners had failed to heed previous warnings, "therefore we will talk to you in a language that you understand. Our words are dead until we give them life with our blood."