The Hindu : International : ``Fingerprints of Al-Qaeda''

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 08, 2005

International

International

``Fingerprints of Al-Qaeda''

CAIRO: The explosions in London have all the trademarks of Al-Qaeda: Attacks on crowded trains and other hard-to-guard public spots, an effort to seed maximum chaos and a quick claim of responsibility.

The goal appears the same, also: To pressure countries with troops in Iraq to pull out.

The explosions strongly resembled the string of bombings on four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, that killed 191 persons in March 2004. In that case, the bombs were placed in knapsacks on the trains.

In the London attacks, there was no immediate sign that suicide attackers set off the blasts. ``This one is very similar to the attack in Madrid: a soft target, full of people, coordinated attacks, at rush hour. All are indications of Al-Qaeda,'' said Diaa Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on militants.

But the London bombings may have even greater significance, he believes, because of the British capital's international status and because of the timing. The blasts on three underground trains and a double-decker bus came as leaders of the Group of Eight, the world's most powerful nations, were meeting in Scotland.

``There is ... a very high alert for the G-8 summit. For such an attack to take place despite all of that is undisputable proof of the failure of American and British security policies,'' said Mr. Rashwan, an expert at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies.

The bombings certainly do underline the difficulty of defending public facilities in Europe, said Magnus Ranstorp, a terror expert at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

London and its transportation network are ``a very tempting target; it's one of the most obvious targets in Europe,'' he said. ``It's impossible to guard against this.''

A single group, Al-Qaeda in Europe, claimed both the Madrid and London bombings. But that may just be a name covering a number of cells working in coordination, some experts believe.

Ten to 20 persons in several loosely affiliated groups were likely involved in the London attacks — because mounting such synchronised attacks ``requires major coordination,'' Mr. Ranstorp said.

Mohammed Salah, an expert on Islamic radicals and the Cairo bureau chief of the Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, said the operation may have been carried out by a ``sleeper cell'' overlooked by Britith security — ``something similar to the Hamburg cell lead by Mohammed Atta,'' one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers who had been based in Germany.

Osama bin Laden and his deputy in Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, have threatened Britain along with other countries in their recent messages, he noted.

``It proves that they still exist and at a large scale despite the war against terrorism,'' he said of the London bombings.

Extremists held

After the Madrid killings, Spain tried to dismantle the cell that hit the Madrid trains — and along the way has uncovered other cells planning more attacks. Spanish authorities have arrested more than 130 suspected extremists in the past year.

A statement on an Islamic Web site by the group's ``secret organisation'' said Thursday's bombings were a ``response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.'' It also warned Denmark and Italy the would ``receive the same punishment if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.'' — AP

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