Police turn attention to bombers’ support network

DETECTIVES are continuing the hunt for the mastermind behind the attacks and the bombers’ support network.

One theory is that an experienced terrorist may have arrived in Britain last month and left the country just days before the attacks.

Police have released no names of any suspects although sources have stressed the suicide bombers did not operate alone.

The mastermind who co-ordinated the attacks is thought to have had previous involvement in terrorist operations and may have links with al-Qaida followers in America. Some reports have said he is British and of Pakistani origin.

Detectives reportedly believe he came into the country at a British port last month and prepared his recruits for the attack.

Some reports suggest he may have left the country on July 6, though it is also claimed he may have met the bombers at Luton

Station to hand over the equipment or to give final instructions. The Times of London, quoting unidentified police sources, said detectives were also interested in locating Magdy el-Nashar, 33, an Egyptian-born academic who recently taught chemistry at Leeds University. The Times said he was believed to have rented one of the homes being searched in Leeds.

A spokesman at North Carolina State University said el-Nashar studied chemical engineering there, beginning in January 2000.

Neighbours said el-Nashar recently left Britain, saying he had a visa problem. Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, yesterday identified the suspected suicide bomber who blew up the double-decker bus, killing 13 people, as Hasib Hussain, 18. The other bombers have been identified as Shahzad Tanweer, 22 Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, and Lindsey Germaine, News reports yesterday said one of the four had been linked loosely to a plot to build a large bomb near London. It did not identify the suspect. The newspaper said police described the link as a low-level “association.”

That appeared to be a reference to a ring cracked in March 2004, when eight men were arrested across southern England in an operation that led to the seizure of half a ton of ammonium nitrate, a chemical fertiliser used in many bomb attacks. Several have been charged and face trial.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair declined to comment on those reports, and he would not say how many suspects are being sought.

“We don’t know if there is a fifth man, or a sixth man, a seventh man,” he said, but added that police were trying to determine who organised the attack.

Two claims of responsibility, purportedly from militant Islamic groups, have surfaced. Commenting on the possible role of al-Qaida, Mr Blair said: Al-Qaida clearly has the ability to provide training ... to provide expertise ... and I think that is what has occurred here.”