|
London attacks linked to saudi arabia { July 31 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8753016/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8753016/
U.K. police probe links to other attacks
Possible link to Saudi Arabia investigated; suspect will fight extradition
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 10:30 a.m. ET July 31, 2005
LONDON - Police questioned suspects Sunday in the botched London transit attacks and reportedly investigated ties by the attackers to Saudi Arabia, scrambling to track down accomplices as they warned residents in the capital not to let down their guard against terrorism.
Meanwhile, British police said Sunday that they had made six new arrests under anti-terrorism laws in connection with the attempted bombings of three subway trains and a bus in London on July 21.
An unnamed police source told Reuters the arrests were not thought to be significant.
Police were busy interrogating the 11 suspects known to be in custody prior to the announcement of the new arrests Sunday and were seeking the extradition of suspected attacker Osman Hussain, who was detained Friday in Rome. Police in northern Italy arrested Hussain’s brother, Fati Issac, for destroying documents sought by investigators, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Another brother of Hussain had been taken into Italian custody on Friday.
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that police discovered that Hussain called a telephone number in Saudi Arabia hours before his arrest. The Sunday Times said that another bombing suspect, 27-year-old Muktar Said Ibrahim, captured Friday in London, went on a monthlong visit to Saudi Arabia in 2003, telling friends he was to undergo training there.
As investigators probed links to other attacks, Spain’s intelligence chief dismissed the possibility that the London bombings were connected to the attacks on trains in Madrid last year that killed 191 people.
Alberto Saiz, the director of the National Intelligence Center, said in an interview published Sunday in the Madrid daily El Pais that similarities between the attacks were limited to “their outward appearance” and targeting of transport networks.
“At that point, the differences start,” Saiz was quoted as saying. The July 7 group of London bombers was “small, just four people — less visible than the Madrid one.”
“Two weeks later, they try a second episode of the same attack — obviously, the perpetrators are not the same,” Saiz said.
“In contrast to Madrid, this gives us the sensation that they are coordinated with other groups or have direction from above — and that there is a plan,” he added. “This is not an isolated group that decides to act on its own account.”
Fresh attack?
The Sunday Times of London, citing security sources, reported that a third cell of Islamic militants was planning multiple suicide bomb attacks on “soft” targets in central London.
Security experts described the pyramid structure of al-Qaida to other newspapers.
“If you see the two groups of bombers as two separate teams of foot soldiers on the very bottom, then there is a possibility they are linked by the command structure in the level above,” a security source told The Observer.
“This is the level we are trying to identify and track down,” the source said.
Dramatic raids
Four arrests made in dramatic raids Friday in London and Rome helped ease the fears of a city that has been on edge since four suicide bombers killed 52 victims on three subways and a bus on July 7. The July 21 bombing attempts further rattled Londoners’ nerves but took no lives.
With all those suspected of carrying out the two sets of attacks now believed dead or in custody, investigators were still working flat out to unravel the tentacles of the two plots.
Police were searching for those who may have recruited and directed the bombers and built the explosives, while also probing for links between the terror cells, one made up mostly of Pakistani Britons and the other mainly of east African immigrants to London.
Hussain — the suspect jailed in Rome, is fighting an extradition request by Britain to have him brought back to London for questioning. His attorney Antonietta Sonnessa, speaking after an initial court hearing in Rome Saturday, said the extradition process could take two months
Hussain, 27, an Ethiopian-born British citizen, is suspected of trying to bomb the Shepherd’s Bush subway station in west London on July 21. He reportedly told investigators the bombers were motivated by anger over the Iraq war.
Hussain was arrested Friday at an apartment reportedly belonging to his brother on the outskirts of Rome after police traced him through his use of a relative’s cell phone. Sonnessa said no formal charges had been filed yet.
No intention to kill?
A legal expert familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press in Rome that Hussain had admitted to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike.
Hussain told interrogators he was not carrying enough explosives even to “harm people nearby,” the expert said, speaking to The AP on condition of anonymity because Italian law requires that the ongoing investigation remain secret.
Without identifying sources, Italian newspapers gave differing accounts of what Hussain told investigators.
Milan’s Corriere della Sera reported that he first told authorities he did not know what was in the backpack he carried onto the Underground, then said he was told the bombers were only supposed to carry out “demonstrative” attacks.
The Rome daily Il Messaggero said the suspect told investigators, “We were supposed to blow ourselves up.”
The Iraq factor
Hussain also said the bombers had been led by a man called “Muktar,” apparently Muktar Said Ibrahim, one of the suspects captured Friday in London, the Rome daily La Repubblica reported.
“Muktar showed us videos with images of the war in Iraq,” Hussain said, according to Italian newspapers.
Ibrahim, 27, the suspect reportedly named by Hussain, is suspected of planting explosives on a bus in east London. Also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, he is a British citizen who emigrated from Eritrea in 1990.
The second man, who identified himself as Ramzi Mohammed, is suspected of trying to blow up a train at the Oval station.
On Wednesday, anti-terrorist officers in Birmingham in central England arrested Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, a Somali with British residency. He is suspected of trying to bomb a subway train near Warren Street station on July 21.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
|
|
