British suicide bombers were within days of blowing up 12 passenger jets above five United States cities in an unprecedented terrorist attack designed to commit ”mass murder on an unimaginable scale”, counterterrorism sources claimed on Thursday night.
Anti-terrorist agents said they had uncovered the plot from surveillance of a group of young British Muslims, which began nearly a year ago and was on a scale never before undertaken.
US and British counterterrorism officials claimed the men, the majority British Muslims of Pakistani descent, were going to disguise liquid explosive as bottles of soft drink and carry them in their hand luggage on to US-bound planes leaving British airports.
When the jets were in midair over American cities, they planned to combine the explosives and detonate them using an electric charge from an iPod, the security services believe. British Airways flights were among the targets. US officials said the bombers had been seeking to hit New York, Washington, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles. Other airlines targeted were thought to be United, American and Continental.
Loss of life might have surpassed the 2 700 killed in the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York five years ago. ”This was our 9/11,” a British security source said.
Anti-terrorist police were bounced into action in the early hours of Thursday after an arrest on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan two weeks ago, according to a Pakistani government official.
A British government source said an intercepted message from Pakistan telling the bombers to ”go now” had triggered the arrests. Security sources said they had been planning to break up the cells in the next few days, but were forced to move earlier to prevent huge loss of life; they believed the attacks were to take place in the next two days.
Metropolitan police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said: ”This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”
Twenty-four people were in custody on Thursday night after police raided addresses in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in Birmingham, and in north and east London. Among those arrested was a Muslim bookkeeper from Walthamstow. Another of the alleged plotters was understood to work at Heathrow.
Although security sources said they believed they had arrested all the known main suspects, police were on Thursday night still hunting a number of others thought to be involved in the plot, a senior counterterrorism official said.
There is also a fear that jihadists involved in other plots may decide to attack quicker than otherwise, because they fear those arrested on Thursday may inform on them, or because they fear the authorities are about to arrest them.
It was claimed in the US that the plotters had planned to blow up three planes an hour for three hours, and that up to 50 people had been involved; this could not be corroborated in the United Kingdom.
The American news network NBC quoted an unnamed counterterrorism official as saying that more than one of the plotters had prepared a martyrdom video tape, while at least one had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.
US President George Bush said the plan was a stark reminder his country was at ”war with Islamic fascists”.
Britain remained on its highest alert — critical — as the suspects were being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
John Reid, the Home Secretary, chaired meetings of Cobra, the Cabinet emergencies committee, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning as the police operation took place. Prime Minister Tony Blair was kept informed of the operation while on holiday in Barbados. Reid said that if the bombers had succeeded, they would have caused death on an ”unprecedented scale”.
Last month, al-Qaeda called on Muslims to fight those backing Israel’s strikes on Lebanon and warned of attacks unless US and British forces pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pakistan said it played a role in thwarting the suspected plot and had arrested an undisclosed number of people.
Extraordinary security measures were put in place in British airports from 3am on Thursday, causing chaos for thousands. Hundreds of long-haul flights were cancelled, and passengers were banned from taking luggage on board. In the US, officials stopped drinks being taken on flights and issued the country’s highest terrorism alert for commercial flights from Britain.
The US Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, said the plotters had envisioned blowing up the aircraft using bomb components innocuous in themselves but which could be combined to form an explosive after take-off.
British Airways cancelled 400 flights out of Heathrow at a cost of £100 000 an airliner. Analysts estimated that the airline could lose up to £40-million from the delays, while easyJet, which cancelled 300 flights on Thursday, has lost an estimated £1-million.
Police are expected to ask a judge on Friday for permission to hold the suspects for up to 28 days without charge, under new anti-terrorism powers that came into force last month. They must seek permission within 48 hours of the arrests.
British media quoted Britain’s central bank as saying it had frozen the assets of 19 of the suspects.
News of the suspected plot affected financial markets. Shares in European airlines fell. The pound fell against the dollar and the euro. Oil fell to below $76 a barrel on fears the security threat might slow growth worldwide and cut oil demand. — Guardian Unlimited Â