Police confident of linking bombs to al-Qaida

DETECTIVES are confident they can find an al-Qaida link to the British bombers who killed 54 people in western Europe’s first suicide attack, London police chief Ian Blair said yesterday.

Warning that another attack is “a strong possibility”, Mr Blair said the hunt is now on for the financiers and bomb makers who supplied the four young killers in London’s deadliest peacetime bomb attack.

Reports that explosives found in Leeds properties connected with the bombers were similar to those used in other al-Qaida-linked attacks were described by Mr Blair as “a reasonably fair picture”.

He also said it was time for Muslim leaders in Britain to stop being in denial about “lunatic fringe” extremists who convert impressionable youngsters.

“What we expect to find at some stage is that there is a clear al-Qaida link, a clear al-Qaida approach,” Mr Blair told BBC Radio.

Describing the four bombers who died in the blast as “foot soldiers”, he said, “What we have got to find is who encouraged them, who trained them, who is the chemist.”

“Al-Qaida does not act like some classic Graham Greene cell. It has very loose affiliations and we have got to find the bankers, the chemists and the trainers, all the people who are assisting in this.”

He confirmed the investigation had spread around the world, saying, “There is a Pakistan connection and there are also connections in other countries.”

Mr Blair called the bombings the greatest single act of mass murder in modern English history.

The BBC, citing sources close to the investigation, said the explosive used was the highly unstable TATP (triacetone triperoxide), made from freely available ingredients.

It said the explosives, found in raids in Leeds, are thought to have used similar materials as Briton Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a transatlantic flight in 2001 with explosives concealed in his shoes.

Police are still hunting the mastermind behind the London bombing following Egyptian authorities’ arrest of Magdy el-Nashar, a PhD in biochemical science who authorities believe built the bombs, in Cairo yesterday.

It was also reported that a man with al-Qaida links on a watch list entered Britain two weeks ago and left a day before the bombings.

He was not put under surveillance because he was not considered a high risk. “With this particular man there is nothing at the moment that links him directly,” Mr Blair said.

When asked about the overall accuracy of the BBC report, Mr Blair said, “It is a reasonably fair picture.”

He said he felt it was vital that leaders of the 1.6 million Muslims in Britain help to root out extremism.

“The crucial issue now is can we engage with the community in Britain so that they move from being fairly close to denial about this into a situation in which they really engage with us?” he said.

“We need them to tell us who the preachers of hate really are, who are the recruiters of the vulnerable, what changes of pattern occurred in people’s behaviour.”