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An Islamist explosives expert now in a Northern Ireland prison conducted dummy runs for terror attacks at Dublin and Knock ************************************ A convicted al-Qaeda bomb-maker serving a jail sentence in Northern Ireland carried out dummy runs for a potential terrorist plot at Dublin and Knock airports, The Observer can reveal.Last Tuesday the expelled Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was seen exhorting young British Muslims in an online broadcast from Beirut to target Dublin because he incorrectly believed US troops used the airport as a transit centre on the way to Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it has emerged that key al-Qaeda...

An Algerian with suspected links to al-Qaida was today jailed for six years for downloading instructions on how to blow up an aircraft with a bomb. The 27-year-old man, sentenced at Belfast crown court, was found guilty of possessing and collecting information connected with terrorism. Authorities have admitted they are unsure exactly who he is. During his six-week trial, he appeared in court under the name Abbas Boutrab. He has used at least seven aliases since his first known arrest for stealing a bag in Paris 13 years ago. Detectives in Northern Ireland, the British security services and the FBI...

Gardaí in Mayo are liasing with police in Northern Ireland after it emerged that Knock Airport had been identified as a potential target for an Al Qaeda suicide bomber. Claims that the West’s airport was a target for Osama bin Laden disciple, Abbas Boutrab, who spent his time fixated on fine-tuning how to blow up passenger jets, is of “considerable concern” to Gardaí, the Western People has learned. Reports suggest that Algerian-born Boutrab, who is believed to have used up to ten false identities before he was apprehended by police in the North, carried out several dummy runs at Knock...