British intelligence officials in Iraq are questioning an al-Qaeda operative after information relating to the 7 July London bombings was allegedly found on his computer drive. The man, who has not been named, was captured by US forces last month. He is understood to have had a portable computer drive on him that showed 'knowledge' of the attacks that killed 56 people. Colonel Robert Brown, commander of 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, in Mosul told a reporter in Iraq working for the news agency UPI about the arrest, but refused to discuss the specific nature of the information. However, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq confirmed that the information on the drive 'related to the London bombings and showed knowledge'. Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Boylan confirmed that both British and US intelligence are questioning the individual. Boylan said he was not yet in a position to confirm if the information on the computer amounted to plans of the intended attack drawn up prior to the bombing. If it does emerge that the al-Qaeda operative in Iraq had detailed plans of the Tube bombings, it could provide an important breakthrough in the investigation and provide more evidence of a direct link between the attacks and al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Last week the Arab satellite television channel, al-Jazeera, broadcast a video of Mohammed Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the 7 July attacks, justifying the atrocities and praising Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the leader of the the Iraqi insurgency, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The video was interspliced with claims by Zawahiri that al-Qaeda was responsible for the bombings.
Saudi intelligence services have also claimed that the attacks might be linked to the insurgents in Iraq. Last month they claimed that a Saudi Islamic extremist captured returning to the Gulf kingdom from Iraq in December told them of plot to bomb the London Underground using four men. The Saudis said they warned British and US intelligence of this plan. British investigators still searching for a potential mastermind behind the London attacks are continuing to focus on Pakistan. At least three of the 7 July suicide bombers - Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain - are believed to have travelled to Pakistan before the London attacks. There has been close liaison between the British and Pakistani authorities and intelligence services over what three of the four suicide bombers had been doing and who they had met in the months before the London bombings. On Friday, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan confirmed for the first time that Tanweer, 23, attended a religious school in Lahore linked to militants, but played down reports that he had been indoctrinated in Pakistan.