Shuttle driver 'had contact with al-Qaida'

An airport shuttle driver accused of plotting a 7/7-style bombing in New York had contacts with al-Qaida that went as high as an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be the terror group's leader in Afghanistan, US intelligence officials said.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian reputed to be one of the founders of the terrorist network, used a middleman to contact Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi as the 24-year-old hatched a plot to use home-made backpack bombs, perhaps on the city's transport system, the officials said.