'UK terror plotters linked to al Qaeda in Mesopotamia'

NEW YORK: Investigators examining the bungled terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow six months ago believe the plotters had a link to al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which would make the attacks the first that the group has been involved in outside the Middle East, a media report said on Friday.

The evidence pointing to the involvement of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia includes phone numbers of members of the Iraqi group found on the plotters' cellphones recovered in Britain, a senior US intelligence official told The New York Times.

Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is a homegrown Sunni extremist group that US intelligence officials say is led by foreigners.

The American intelligence official, the Times said, noted several similarities between the events in Britain and attacks in Iraq attributed to al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, including the use of vehicle-borne explosives aimed at multiple targets.

The Times said while officials stopped short of saying that the plot originated with al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, or was directed by the group, they did say it was the closest collaboration they knew of between the Iraq group and plotters outside the Middle East.

The American official who noted the evidence found on the recovered cellphones was unable to provide details about how often the accused plotters called Iraq or how soon before the bungled attacks calls were made, the paper said.

Two other American counter-terrorism officials, The Times said, generally concurred with this assessment of the link to the Iraqi group, but one of them cautioned against overstating the role of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, also known as al Qaeda in Iraq, or A.Q.I., saying, "The event is best viewed as A.Q.I.-related, rather than A.Q.I.-directed."

However, none of the officials would divulge the exact nature of the group's involvement in the operation, the paper said.

British authorities have said that the plotters, Bilal Abdulla, a British-born doctor of Iraqi descent, and Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian aeronautical engineer, parked two vehicles laden with gas canisters and explosives near a popular nightclub in central London at the end of June.

The cars, apparently positioned to strike people leaving the nightclub, failed to ignite.

The next day, the two men rammed a jeep Cherokee loaded with gas canisters into the Glasgow airport. It erupted in flames, and the driver, Ahmed, was severely burned and died.

The paper quoted officials who have been briefed on the inquiry as saying investigators suspect that Dr Abdulla, the British-born doctor reared in Baghdad, was the connection to the Iraq-based network, although it is not clear what they see as the nature of the link.

Dr Abdulla was working at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, after qualifying for a limited registration in the diabetes department at the time of the attacks.

After his arrest, colleagues told Scottish newspapers that Dr Abdulla was hard to motivate to do medical rounds because he seemed preoccupied by following Islamic affairs on his computer.