Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | Eighteen months on, the trial of the men said to have been involved in the 21 July 2005 attacks has finally come to court, and the full details of police suspicions have been revealed. |
Implications | It is a remarkable coincidence that the two groups prepared almost identical attacks on the capital, although the timing of the second is likely to have been influenced by news of the first. Both groups apparently operated independently, although it is believed that they were radicalised by extremist preachers, and that some attended training camps. |
Outlook | Although there have been no attacks on U.K. soil since mid-2005, the authorities warn that the threat remains severe and point to a succession of plots they have apparently disrupted. Groups of radicalised Britons operating independently are extremely difficult to detect. |
Defective Bombs Spared London
Yesterday saw the trial open of six men said to be behind the failed 21 July 2005 bomb attacks on London's public transport network. The trial is set to last four months and will shed light on the severe problem of domestic Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom. Four of the men stand accused of trying to detonate bombs onboard three Underground trains and one bus. A fifth is thought to have lost his nerve and dumped his bomb in woodland. The attacks were staged exactly two weeks after four suicide bombers also struck three Underground trains and a bus, killing 56. The similarities between the attacks prompted theories that the second group was either linked to the first, or that it staged a copycat attack inspired by the first.
Both theories were yesterday rejected by the prosecution. The men were already known to police prior to the attacks, which are thought to have been in preparation since March 2005. Police secretly photographed the six over a year earlier on an apparent camping trip for Islamic militants in the picturesque Lake District area. They remained under some form of surveillance over the following months, although it is not known how much the authorities were aware of. The men may nonetheless have been emboldened by seeing media reports of the 7 July attacks, and adjusted their tactics and timing as a result.
The prosecution also dismissed a claim by one of the accused that the second wave was a deliberate hoax that was intended to make a political point rather than cause injury. The bombs, constructed from a mix of chapati flour, hydrogen peroxide and acetone, and using tacks, screws and washers as shrapnel, only failed to go off because of problems with the mix and/or the effect of hot weather, the prosecution argues.
The Accused
The six, who stand accused of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life, are: Muktar Said Ibrahim, 28, from Stoke Newington, north London; Ramzi Mohammed, 25, from North Kensington, west London; Yassin Omar, 26, from New Southgate, north London; Hussain Osman, 28, of Stockwell, south London; Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, of no fixed address; and Adel Yahya, 24, from Tottenham, north London. All except Yahya are accused of being the would-be suicide bombers, while the latter allegedly helped with the preparation of the attacks. He left the country six weeks before the attacks. The bombs are thought to have been assembled at Omar's flat in New Southgate. Mohammed tried to detonate his bomb onboard a Northern Line train heading for the City of London between Stockwell and Oval stations. Ibrahim also took the Northern Line to Bank in the City, before boarding a bus. He tried to detonate his bomb on Shoreditch High Street, east of the financial centre. Osman is accused of having boarded a Hammersmith and City Line train at Westbourne Park, to the west of the capital, activating the detonator between Latimer Road and Shepherd's Bush stations. In all instances the detonators exploded but the main charges did not. Finally, Asiedu is believed to have lost his nerve and dropped his bomb in Little Wormwood Scrubs. A huge manhunt was launched, and the men were apprehended over the following days in London, Birmingham and Rome (Italy). Asiedu approached the police, in a bid to dissuade them that he was involved.
Rather than being of Pakistani origin like most of the 7 July culprits, the six defendants all hail originally from Africa. Ibrahim, Yahya and Osman came from Ethiopia, Omar and Mohammed from Somalia, and Asiedu from Ghana. They seem to have been radicalised in London and police discovered a large quantity of extremist literature and videos at their homes. Ibrahim is believed to have attended an extremist training camp in Sudan in 2003, and to have met with militants in Pakistan subsequently. Some of the men attended the notorious Finsbury Park mosque in north London, where several other convicted extremists passed through. The mosque's most notorious preacher at the time was Abu Hamza, now behind bars.
Outlook and Implications
The 7 and 21 July 2005 investigations have revealed the severe threat posed by groups of radicalised youths who have little or no operational support from elsewhere. Such groups are very hard to detect as they do not give themselves away by trying to make contact with others who are already under suspicion. The authorities have greatly stepped up their surveillance of mosques and other locations where radicalisation is thought to take place, but it is very hard to for them to justify arrests before plots are well advanced. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been used as a rallying call by radical preachers, and the United Kingdom's prominent role in these have caused great anger among the country's Muslim communities. However, the government argues that the campaigns have also helped disrupt extremist networks that might otherwise have organised attacks in the United Kingdom and provided operational support to the likes of the July bombers. The authorities nonetheless warn that there are no grounds for complacency, and they have revealed that a series of plots has been disrupted since July 2005. The domestic security service MI5 grades the current threat level as "Severe".