Posted on 10/12/2008 2:34:29 AM PDT by Stoat
Two alleged Islamist terrorists left car bombs packed with nails and petrol in London's West End and then escaped from the scene by hailing rickshaws, a court heard today.
Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Kafeel Ahmed, 28, parked one of the cars outside the packed Tiger Tiger club in Haymarket and the other in front of a busy bus stop.
The two Mercedes were left in the early hours of 29 June last year but failed to explode because the detonators did not work properly, Woolwich crown court heard.
Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, said the two men were captured on CCTV leaving the area in the early hours of the morning.
Ahmed was seen dumping an umbrella he had apparently been carrying to shield his face from cameras, even though it was not raining. At 1.39am he boarded a rickshaw in Piccadilly Circus and Abdulla also hailed one. They met in Edgware Road at 2.05am, just 30 minutes after they left the bomb-rigged cars.
They made repeated efforts to call mobile phones in the two bomb cars to ignite their devices but had failed to take into account the mixture of gases in the car which prevented an explosion.
Ahmed, a mechanical engineering student, died in hospital after he and Abdulla attempted a suicide bomb attack on Glasgow Airport the following day.
Abdulla is standing trial with fellow NHS doctor Mohammed Asha, 28. They deny conspiring to murder and to cause explosions likely to endanger life.
Mr Laidlaw today described the failed attack on London. He said Abdulla parked a green Mercedes outside Tiger Tiger at 1.24am. There were 556 customers in the club as well as many members of staff. The bomb vehicle was only discovered after staff called an ambulance to treat a customer who had fallen down stairs, injuring his ankle, the court heard. A bouncer and the club's general manager noticed the Mercedes as they met the paramedics at about 1.40am.
They saw gas vapour and detected a strong smell of liquid petroleum gas coming from the vehicle. The manager asked the ambulance staff to contact police and evacuated Tiger Tiger of its customers.
A fireman who arrived at the scene opened the door of the Mercedes and pulled one of the gas cylinders out of the rear passenger foot well. But when he noticed a second large cylinder and two mobile phones with wires attached he called the Bomb Squad.
Mr Laidlaw said: “For something like five minutes or so, members of the emergency services as well as those in the club had been in very close proximity to the green Mercedes before the very great danger they were in was appreciated.”
The vehicle was made safe by about 3.30am, but counter-terrorism officers then realised there was a second bomb car.
Ahmed had parked a blue Mercedes in Cockspur Street, near Tiger Tiger, at 1.18am that day, the court was told. It remained there for about an hour then a traffic warden put a ticket on it and it was towed away to the pound in Park Lane.
The car contained four 20-litre water containers, each 60 to 70 per cent full of petrol, gas cylinders, a mobile phone detonator and a large number of nails.
Abdulla, an Iraqi national who worked at a hospital in Paisley, is said to be a key figure in the conspiracy. Asha, a Jordanian national who worked at a hospital near Stoke, is described as providing support and money for the conspiracy. The trial continues.
Terrorists’ Transportation Trends Ping
Crime and Punishment
Appropriate Pumishment.
If convicted these dirtbag bottom feeders should bs placed inside cars rigged to explode, setting in some deserted area and then the call made.
Agreed in principle, but on the other hand it would give them what they want, and very quickly....perhaps forced labor in a pig slaughterhouse for about fifty years and then a particularly slow and painful death? We could have this sort of unpleasantness taken care of overseas where the tentacles of the ACLU don’t reach.
They use rickshaws in London?
Beat me to it. Why not? It's well on its way to being the capitol of a third world country.
Thanks for the new sig line!
failed to explode because the detonators did not work properly
attempted a suicide bomb attack on Glasgow Airport
Must have been at the bottom of the class. The jackass couldn't get anything right.
That thought crossed my mind but knowing the brits I thought it might be a language thing. I guess it is going backwards.
I’ll be darned. They advertise it as “green” transportation, although I bet their are some low budget ones.
Fwiw, Halifax, Nova Scotia has rickshaws as well.
I was just googling the London ones. Interesting. I guess living in rural SC I don’t get out enough. LOL.
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