Posted on 05/04/2003 4:48:40 AM PDT by knighthawk
LONDON: An estimated 50 would-be suicide bombers who have roots in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are residing in Britain, the British media reported on Sunday quoting a leading London-based Islamic radical.
Hassan Butt, a self-styled recruiter of British volunteers for the Islamic holy war, said he had been approached by at least 50 men for guidance on how to carry out "martyrdom operations" in Israel and twenty of them are "absolutely serious" about what they planned to do.
"They are waiting for the right time, the right people. You don't just do it as individuals, you do it as an organisation. It's about screening them, testing them, making sure they are sincere. Then, when it's right, believe me they'll all be used," Butt said.
The warning came after last week's suicide bombing on a bar in Tel Aviv, which killed three people. The attack by Asif Mohammed Hanif, from Hounslow, west London, and Omar Khan Sharif, from Derby, was the first suicide bombing by British citizens. Hanif blew himself up but Sharif fled when his bomb failed to detonate and is still on the run.
Detectives from Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch are questioning six people -- three men and three women -- suspected to have links to the blast. They are being questioned at the high-security Paddington Green police station in central London, on suspicion of helping to plan terrorist attacks.
Butt, according to the newspaper, claimed that he knew both British bombers but declined to elaborate. He claimed they were just the first of a significant number of Britons who were preparing to conduct similar attacks.
In the past, security officials have been sceptical about Butt's claims. However, last November he was arrested and questioned by Special Branch detectives who believed he had information relating to terror attacks. About the same time, he warned that he knew British-based fundamentalists were preparing to carry out suicide attacks abroad.
He was also proved correct in his claims that scores of Britons had gone to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, introducing some of them to journalists.
One of the six being questioned by police on Saturday was Tahira Sharif, wife of the failed bomber. Intelligence sources said Sharif was known to local police as an Islamic activist. They are examining mobile phone records, personal computers and religious literature seized at the couple's Derby home.
Mi5, the British internal intelligence agency believes the attacks were planned abroad.
Security sources say they might have been indoctrinated by radical clerics there who introduced them to terrorists from Hamas.
However, investigators say the British bombers may have received financial backing, spiritual support and an introduction to contacts from supporters of Al-Muhajiroun, a fanatical group wanting to turn Britain into an Islamic state.
The group on Saturday denied that the men were members but Omar Bakri Mohammed, its leader, said he had acted as spiritual adviser to them. Bakri said Sharif had attended six two-hour sessions in Derby, with the last on April 14, just over a fortnight before the bombing.
A team of officers from Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, arrived here last week to probe links between both men and Al-Muhajiroun. The Bank of England has frozen accounts belonging to the two men.
Fitting.
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