POLICE investigating the alleged airliner bomb plot have found a suitcase containing components needed to make an explosive device, it was reported last night.

The alleged terror plot to blow up US-bound planes was probably sanctioned by al-Qaida number-two leader Ayman al-Zawahri, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said today.

A British man identified by Pakistan as a key suspect in the alleged plane terror plot has links with outlawed Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed and is related by marriage to its leader, an intelligence official and a relative said.

Top Pakistani intelligence agents said today the alleged terror suspects arrested last week over an alleged plot to blow up a number of planes crossing the Atlantic did not have had the experience to carry out the attack.

BRITISH police questioned 22 suspects yesterday in the alleged plot to bomb trans-Atlantic jetliners in mid-air, and the country’s top law-and-order official warned that the risk of another attack remained high.

Afghanistan’s foreign ministry today denied any Afghan al-Qaida connection to an alleged plot to blow up aeroplanes over the Atlantic, rejecting a Pakistani allegation.

An intercept of a telephone call made from Pakistan to Britain that urged plotters to go ahead with attacks on US-bound aeroplanes played a crucial role in foiling the alleged terror plan, Pakistani officials said today.

Pakistani intelligence agents were questioning at least 17 people, including British nationals, over their alleged links to a plot to blow up US-bound passenger jets from Britain, officials said today.

POLICE arrested 40 people in cities throughout Italy in raids on Muslim gathering places in a security crackdown after Britain thwarted an alleged terror plot, the Interior Ministry said last night.

THE extent of the Pakistan connection to the alleged airliner bomb plot was revealed last night after officials there announced the arrest of two British nationals and described one as a “key” suspect.

Intelligence agents arrested seven people including at least two British nationals over an alleged terror plot aimed at blowing up US-bound passenger jets from Britain and claimed there was an al-Qaida connection in the case, Pakistani officials said.