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Bin Laden's followers learn to seek out 'soft targets'
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 08/07/2005)
Ever since September 11, 2001, security chiefs warned that London was a prime target for terrorist attack.
But as the weeks without an incident turned into months and then years, counter-terrorism experts began worrying about something new: public complacency.
Yesterday's bombs showed that the dangerous new world of international terrorism has not gone away.
Terrorists may have regarded Britain as a "hard" target. But they have now discovered that London's Tube and bus system is as "soft" as any target struck in recent years in Bali, Mombasa, Casablanca or Madrid.
The current phase of violent Islamist extremism against the West goes further back than the war in Iraq and, in the case of America, can be traced to the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993.
A key role in the conflict belongs to Arab veterans of the struggle against Soviet forces and the man who has become their figurehead, Osama bin Laden.
Their return home intensified the struggle in Egypt and Algeria. At first most concentrated on fighting the Arab regimes, rather than the Western governments that supported them. But their tactics soon changed.
World Trade Centre: In 1993 Islamic extremists exploded a bomb in the New York landmark's garage, killing six and injuring more than 1,000.
Luxor: They resorted to attacking tourists in Egypt in 1997 as the means of undermining a vital pillar of the economy. Six gunmen opened fire on tour groups visiting the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, killing 58.
Fatwa: In February 1998 bin Laden launched the "Islamic World Front for the struggle against the Jews and the Crusaders". Their fatwa said it was a duty for Muslims "to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military".
Embassies: In August, six months after bin Laden's declaration of war, two truck bombs destroyed the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salam, killing more than 200 people.
USS Cole: In October 2000, suicide bombers on motorboats damaged an American warship moored in Aden, killing 17 US sailors.
9/11: On September 11, 2001, al-Qa'eda flew aircraft into New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
President George W Bush launched his "war on terrorism" and, with the help of Britain and other allies, toppled the Taliban.
Having lost his base of operations in Afghanistan, bin Laden is believed to have found refuge among the Pathan tribesmen on the border with Pakistan.
Security forces have arrested al-Qa'eda leaders but bin Laden still taunts the West. Intelligence sources say the al-Qa'eda "holding company" has largely collapsed. But Islamist groups inspired by bin Laden still thrive.
Shoe Bomber: In December 2001 Richard Reid, a British convert to Islam, tried to blow up an American Airlines flight to Miami by setting off explosives in his shoe but was overpowered by passengers
Tunisia: A lorry bomb killed 21 people, mostly Germans, when it exploded in April 2002 outside a synagogue on the island of Djerba.
Bali: Two bombs exploded outside nightclubs on Bali in October, 2002, killing 202 people, most of them Australian holidaymakers.
Iraq: The US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 intensified the attacks. In May, al-Qa'eda turned its sights on Saudi Arabia with a series of four suicide bombings at Western residential compounds in Riyadh that killed 35 people.
Four days later, five simultaneous suicide bombings are aimed at Western and Jewish targets in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, killing more than 45 people.
Turkey: Two suicide bombers set off their explosives in November 2003 near two synagogues, killing 23 people, mostly Turks. Suicide car bombs were then exploded outside the British consulate in Istanbul and the headquarters of the HSBC bank, killing 27 people, including the British consul-general, Roger Short.
Madrid: 10 remote-controlled bombs placed on commuter trains killed 191 people in the Spanish capital just days before the elections last year. The opposition socialists swept to power.
If 9/11 prompted America to go to war, Spain's attack encouraged the new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.
Extremists now appear to have been drawn mainly to Iraq. Mr Bush said last month that nation was "the central front in the war on terror". But for Mr Blair, the central front is now in British cities.
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