An Islamic leader warned in a Portuguese newspaper interview 15 months ago that a London-based group, al-Qaeda Europe, was on the verge of a major attack.
”Here in London there is a very well-organised group, which calls itself al-Qaeda Europe,” Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Syrian head of the London-based group al-Muhajiroun, told the Portuguese daily Publico in an interview published on April 18 last year.
”I know they are on the verge of launching a big operation.”
Bakri, speaking a month after the Madrid train bombings, said it was ”inevitable” that London would be hit by a large attack ”because they are being prepared by various groups”.
He said the Madrid bombings, in which 10 blasts killed 191 people in four trains, were carried out by a group of independent actors that backed Osama bin Laden’s organisation.
”There are many youths who dream of joining al-Qaeda, but worse than that, there are many ‘freelancers’ who are willing to launch operations similar to those by al-Qaeda,” he said.
”The attack in Madrid was carried out by one of those groups.”
Bakri is suspected of having links with Abu Qatada, an alleged al-Qaeda leader in Europe.
Spanish authorities believe that the Madrid train bombings were carried out by a group called the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which also carried out attacks that killed 45 people in the Moroccan city of Casablanca in May 2003.
Police suspect the group is linked to al-Qaeda.
Asked if al-Qaeda had a connection to the March 11 bombings in Spain, Bakri said: ”Perhaps they did, but the operation got out of their control.”
In the newspaper interview, he said the network had about 11 000 members around the world working towards the aim of establishing a grand pan-Islamic caliphate covering several countries with majority Muslim populations.
”With September 11, al-Qaeda convinced Muslims that it has the power to put its plan in practice,” he said.
Bakri (46), founder of the Islamist Al-Muhajiroun movement, is suspected of links to Abu Qatada, a Palestinian whose real name is Omar Othman and who is believed by security services to be the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in Europe.
Sentenced in his absence to life in prison in Jordan for his alleged role in a series of attacks, he is currently under house arrest after spending two-and-a-half years in the Belmarsh high-security prison.
Abu Qatada arrived in Britain in 1993 and obtained the status of political refugee.
The British government said last year that he was a radical preacher and the most important ”inspiration” for terrorists in the country, including the men of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11 2001 attacks.
In his prayers, notably at Finsbury Park mosque, he established links with Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, and Zacharias Moussaoui, who was linked to the 9/11 plot and is being held in the United States awaiting trial.
London police search for clues
Meanwhile, reports Peter Walker, police in London picked through the wreckage of Britain’s worst terrorist bombings to date on Friday for clues to the attackers as the city’s mayor vowed it will bounce back from carnage that left at least 50 dead.
Almost 36 hours after three bombs ripped through subway trains and a fourth tore apart a packed double-decker bus, some bodies remained underground, while the families and friends of those missing waited in agony.
In a chilling echo of the September 11 2001 attacks on the US, hand-written posters started to appear at train stations around the British capital as relatives appealed desperately for information.
The city itself returned to some semblance of normality, with the suspended underground rail line operating a partial service and buses running full schedules.
However, many commuters chose to stay at home after an attack that police and government officials have linked to the al-Qaeda terror network, while others expressed trepidation using a public-transport system shown to be so vulnerable to attack.
Police vowed to catch the perpetrators behind the blasts that, in the space of 56 minutes, sliced the roof off the bus — killing 13 alone — and slaughtered dozens in packed London underground commuter trains.
”That is something we will bend every sinew of the metropolitan police service … to do. The entire weight of the anti-terrorist branch of Scotland Yard is aimed implacably … at this operation,” said the head of London’s police force, Commissioner Ian Blair.
The death toll has surpassed 50, he added, but said police have ”great difficulty” ascertaining the exact figure because of the perilous task of investigating a blast deep underground in central London’s Russell Square station.
Those on the frontline of the gruesome search at Russell Square, in which at least 21 died, were still trying to reach some of the bodies at a scene one British transport police officer described as ”carnage”.
”There are no living people in there and the challenge is now to remove the dead,” said Andy Trotter, deputy chief constable of the transport police, adding that it will take some time to find out how many bodies remain.
Besides the dead, 700 people were wounded in the explosions, of whom 350 were taken to hospital, 100 of them staying overnight. Twenty-two people are still in serious and critical conditions. One person died in hospital during the night.
London ‘has coped with worse’
As the full horror of the attacks continued to emerge, a series of public figures insisted that London has coped with worse and will not buckle beneath the bombers’ actions.
In an emotional statement, mayor Ken Livingstone urged the city to return to normal as soon as possible, saying he plans to use the underground to go to work on Monday as usual.
He added: ”I say to those who planned this dreadful attack, whether they are still here in hiding or somewhere abroad, watch next week as we bury our dead and mourn them, but see also in those same days new people coming to this city to make it their home, to call themselves Londoners — and doing it because of that freedom to be themselves.”
Later, while visiting some of the injured in hospital, Queen Elizabeth II said the bombers ”will not change our way of life”.
People of her generation, who had lived through the massive German bombing of London during World War II, ”have been here before”, the monarch said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair delivered a defiant message from the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Scotland, which agreed on a package of measures to assist the poor in Africa.
”We stand today in the shadow of terrorism. But it will not obscure what we came here to achieve,” he said. The blasts hit on the first full day of the G8 summit, sending Blair hurrying back to London to address the nation.
He returned the same evening to Scotland to complete the discussions.
Despite the bravado, for some Londoners the aftermath of the bombs will likely be permanent.
Yvonne Nash spent Friday desperate with worry for boyfriend Jamie Gordon, who was last heard from the previous morning when he called a work colleague to say he was travelling to his office in the centre of the city by bus.
The cellphone call was traced to the scene of the bus blast. The even worse news: Gordon’s phone had been found in the bus wreckage.
”It’s been devastating to be without him for just a day. It’s been 27 hours and we don’t know if he is dead or alive,” Nash said.
Police said each of the bombs is believed to have contained less than 4,5kg of high explosive, adding that the bombers probably left the devices on the floor of underground trains.
There was no evidence of a suicide attack in any of the blasts, the London police chief said, despite reports from passengers on the bus who said they saw a nervous-looking man rummaging in a bag seconds before the blast.
Although the London underground resumed partial service, managers warned that sections of the lines affected by the blasts will remain closed for some weeks.
Underground worker Stanley-John Stevens (61) said he had mixed feelings as he returned to work at King’s Cross station.
”I feel defiant but also a bit scared, as you never know when it’s going to happen,” he said.
On the buses, there was a similar sense of defiant trepidation.
”I feel apprehensive but I refuse to cower to people who commit such cowardly attacks,” said Pash Naicker (45), a security manager who works opposite Victoria station.
World financial markets mostly found their feet.
London’s stock market rallied along with its European counterparts as shaken city workers returned to their desks.
”Both the financial community and the public have shown defiance and an inability to allow the terrorist to have more than a temporary impact,” said Divyang Shah, strategist with research group IDEAglobal.
However, in countries around the world security was stepped up at subways, airports and rail stations in the wake of Thursday’s blasts. — Sapa-AFP