British suicide bombers carried out London attacks, say police
The News Review:
- British suicide bombers carried out London attacks, say police
- Expert says home-grown terrorism a new threat
- London bombers are British
British suicide bombers carried out London attacks, say police
Guardian Unlimited – Jul 13, 2005
The normal procedure for such operations, if they involved al-Qaida or one of its related groups, would be for the chief planner to have left the country before the operations took place. There is a possibility that those who planned it are still in Britain. Police are now checking flight records for suspicious passengers. Mr Clarke said: “I would like at this stage to thank the public for all the support and assistance they have already provided. ” Mr Hayman described those who had perpetrated the attack as “extremist criminals” and added: “It’s at times like these that communities bind together.
Expert says home-grown terrorism a new threat
abc.net.au – Jul 13, 2005
Maybe most of them died in the atrocity last Thursday. However, they obviously had associates, somebody recruited them, somebody financed them, and those individuals who controlled them, indoctrinated them, are still out there. The question is how many other home-grown individuals have they indoctrinated. How many others have they turned into jihadists, into suicide bombers? No one knows, indeed the British security services are very concerned about another follow-on terrorist atrocity, and for that reason the threat level has been raised to level one, which is the highest level, which means imminent and critical. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: What can we now say about the way this attack was planned and executed?M J GOHEL: There is no doubt that we are dealing here with a new kind of terrorist, perhaps we can call it al-Qaeda stage two, where we’re dealing with home-grown individuals, people who have no direct link to bin Laden, or to al-Qaeda, wherever it may exist, whether it’s in Pakistan or elsewhere. We are dealing here with individuals who have lived in this country, who have been born and brought up here, and who do not appear on the security radar. In spite of that, the security services have been able to track them down, and capture individuals involved in this plot, and to identify them…
It is a major challenge for the security services. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Would they have had outside support, outside help, in some way to carry out these sorts of attacks?M J GOHEL: We are facing a transnational problem. There are home-grown terrorists, but they are cooperating with individuals from outside, because different terrorist groups do cooperate with each other in terms of providing false identity papers, perhaps providing explosives, safe hiding places, and other material help. Therefore, the chances are that the home-grown terrorists did have some linkages, perhaps to Arab extremists from abroad. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: What sort of support would they need in England? How many people do you think they might need as a support network to carry out something like this?M J GOHEL: This particular cell does not seem to be very large. Perhaps eight or 12 individuals were involved. The Madrid train bombers cell was also regarded to be rather small.
London bombers are British
Middle East Online – Jul 13, 2005
By Peter Walker – LONDON British newspapers on Wednesday hailed the discovery by police of the identity of bombers who killed at least 52 people in London last week, while expressing horror at another new fact – the terrorists were home-grown. “Suicide bombers from suburbia,” read the banner headline in the Daily Mail, above a photograph of police vans standing on a street of ordinary-looking terraced houses in Leeds, northern England. Police raided a series of addresses around Leeds on Tuesday as they announced they had identified four suspects over the bombings. It was “very likely” that one of the men who carried out the atrocities last Thursday was among the dead, officers said, without categorically stating the three blasts on subway trains and one on a bus were suicide attacks…
This revelation posed a number of uncomfortable questions for both Britain’s Muslim community and the country at large, papers noted. Police had made “an extraordinary swift breakthrough, both remarkable and disturbing,” The Times said in an editorial column on Wednesday. “The conclusion that the terrorists were home-grown is deeply unsettling. It does not, in any way, close this case,” it argued, noting that questions such as the bombers’ links to Al-Qaeda and the identity of any organiser needed to be addressed. However, the fact that the men seemed somehow to keep their murderous plans secret in their own community “raises the toughest issues”, the paper said. “Is it really possible that no one beyond the bombers had any inkling of their intentions?” it asked. “Were their extremist views and plans unknown even in the circle of friends and fellow Muslims who may have shared their fanaticism and hostility to the society in which they grew up?”There was now a “tremendous burden of responsibility” on Muslim elders, who must take action, the paper said.