Re: “London bombers” - CCTV pics
Gosh, some of these guys look like they could be Somalian or Ethiopian.
Two bomb plots ‘linked’
Tony Thompson, Peter Beaumont and Martin Bright
Sunday July 24, 2005
The Observer
Links have been uncovered between the two teams of bombers who have brought terror to the streets of London over the past two weeks, say security sources.
Police now believe some of the men they are pursuing for last week’s abortive attacks - on Shepherd’s Bush, Oval and Warren Street tube stations and on a No 26 bus in Hackney - attended a whitewater rafting trip at the same centre as two of the 7 July bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.
This raises the distinct possibility that the two operations were connected as part of a larger plan to bring carnage to the capital.
Evidence discovered in the rucksacks left behind by the failed bombers led police to three addresses in London. When investigators cross-referenced them with the electoral register they discovered names that tallied with those of individuals who attended the outdoor adventure course in Snowdonia last summer.
Scotland Yard has con-firmed the explosive used in the 21 July bomb attempts bore a similarity to that used in the earlier attacks. Initial tests on a package found in bushes in Little Wormwood Scrubs, north-west London, yesterday show it may contain the same explosive.
The Observer understands that investigators are examining the possibility that the trip to Bala in North Wales was used as a bonding experience. One line of inquiry being pursued is whether a cleric was responsible for organising the trip to bring the two cells together.
Armed police stormed an address in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, south of Stockwell, yesterday afternoon, apparently looking for the man seen running away from Oval station in a distinctive ‘New York’ top. The house has been under surveillance since last Thursday, and the man shot at Stockwell station on Friday morning is believed to have left the same premises.
At around 3.45pm, a bottle-green unmarked police car entered the road, a small close of modern flats, followed by a grey people carrier that blocked off the street. Around 17 officers in protective helmets, goggles and body armour appeared. Within five minutes several loud bangs were heard as police fired gas through windows. This was followed by a further series of bangs as police marksmen took over properties in the area.
In a separate development, police are investigating an East African link to last week’s bombers. The Observer has established that two addresses raided on Friday have a link to individuals with family connections in Somalia and Ethiopia, war-torn countries in the Horn of Africa with long histories of violence.
Security officials confirmed that a Somali living at an address in west Kilburn raided on Friday was of interest to the investigation. A second man, thought to be Ethiopian, was arrested in Stockwell in connection with the bombings. A third arrest in early yesterday was made as a precaution because a man was acting suspiciously around Stockwell station.
In a report this month, the International Crisis Group warned of a new al-Qaeda cell in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, led by a young Somali militant who had been trained in Afghanistan. Police and intelligence officials are now trying to establish how the London-based African cell and the largely Leeds-based cell of Pakistani origin fit together.
‘We are still looking at the recruitment process and that is something we have yet to nail down,’ said one security source.
‘One possibility we are looking at is an affiliated community, through a certain mosque, through veterans of the Afghan war or a talent-spotter putting these teams together. The material we are working with is limited. Until we can expose the process of recruitment, we are not going to be close to the full answers.’
One theory is that a small and disparate group split to recruit and form individual cells, with key members of each cell known to each other but not to all members. Intelligence officers are also trying to establish if any of the ‘African’ cell had travelled to Pakistan.