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| Britain |
| July 7 ringleader linked to Tel Aviv suicide bombers |
| 2006-07-10 |
| MOHAMMAD Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 bombings, collaborated with two other British suicide bombers to recruit young Muslims for training camps in Afghanistan four years before he carried out his terror attacks in London. Fresh evidence has been uncovered linking Khan to Omar Sharif and Hanif Asif, who killed three people and injured 50 in 2003 with a suicide attack on a bar in Tel Aviv. According to a witness who has not yet spoken to the police, the men wanted to indoctrinate young Muslims and take them abroad for further training. Kursheed Fiaz, a businessman who runs an information technology company in Manchester, had four or five meetings with Khan who was initially accompanied by Sharif and later by Asif. The close link between the two groups of suicide bombers suggests Britain’s Islamic terror network may be more tightly knit than previously thought. It also raises questions as to whether Khan may have been involved in the Tel Aviv bombing. Israeli police have confirmed that Khan visited Israel on February 19, 2003, two months before the attack. Accompanied by a group of British tourists and a woman said to be his wife, Khan spent only 24 hours in the country. Israeli authorities have investigated the trip but have been unable to establish whether it might have been a “dry run” or reconnaissance mission for the bombers. The new evidence — to be broadcast on a BBC2 programme on Tuesday — could also prove useful to police in Britain. Anti-terror squad detectives have been attempting to build a profile of Khan, the ringleader of the four London suicide bombers who killed 52 people on three Underground trains and a bus last year. According to the official government report into the London bombings, Khan had a westernised upbringing but his outlook began to change in 2003 when he made friends with a group of radicals from Leeds and Huddersfield. Previously apolitical, he became enraged about Muslim suffering around the world after watching hardline Islamic videos. But Fiaz’s account suggests that he may have become radical much earlier. Fiaz says he was contacted by Khan in the summer of 2001. Khan had taken a job as a primary school assistant in Beeston, Leeds, a few months earlier. Fiaz, 46, is originally from Jhelum in northern Punjab, where Asif’s father also grew up. It is thought Asif may have recommended Fiaz to Khan as an influential businessman. According to Fiaz’s account, Khan came to his office seeking to spread “Dawa” — a form of evangelical preaching that is common in the Islamic world. It is mostly benign but can also be an essential step in the development of a young militant. Khan was accompanied by Sharif and an unidentified man. Sharif, then aged 25, had recently returned from studying Arabic in Damascus. Fiaz, whose account will be broadcast on Tuesday, says Khan asked whether he employed any young people who wanted to learn the ways of Islam. When Fiaz pointed out that his employees were already good Muslims, Khan said: “We need to teach them certain things,” but did not elaborate. Fiaz allowed Khan to instruct his nephews and some other young men. The instruction ended when Fiaz’s nephews became suspicious of Khan and his friends. “They said in order to enhance (the training) that they would have to take these people to Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan. My nephews and one or two of the younger lads pulled me up and said, ‘What’s this about Afghanistan?’” At the time Afghanistan was still ruled by the Taliban. When Fiaz quizzed Khan about the trips, “that’s when I got a bit wary”. Fiaz added: “We got the impression they were looking for some gullible people. Youngsters . . . that would fall for whatever they were trying to preach or practise.” During the exchange, Khan revealed he had already been to Afghanistan but claimed he had been visiting mosques and shrines. It was to be the last of Khan’s preaching sessions at Fiaz’s office. In October that year Sharif and Asif are believed to have travelled to Afghanistan where they fought alongside the Taliban against the American-led invasion forces. A month later Sharif returned to Lahore, Pakistan, where he stayed with Ali Qureshi, an administrator for Al-Muhajiroun, the Islamic extremist group with a strong following in the UK. According to Qureshi, Sharif was inconsolable. “He would cry, ‘Allah, you are annoyed with me, and that is why you have not granted me martyrdom.’ He would pray . . . that he may be granted martyrdom. “His friends that accompanied him in the Afghan war told us while they were here that he had attempted to commit suicide there two or three times and they managed to forcibly stop him.” He was to achieve his “martyrdom” 18 months later, after he and Asif travelled to the Middle East and agreed to be suicide bombers for Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organisation. Asif’s bomb exploded outside the Tel Aviv bar but Sharif’s device failed to go off. His body was found in the sea a few days later. The cause of death was drowning. Sharif had been a follower of Omar Bakri, the former Al-Muhajiroun leader in Britain, now in exile in Lebanon. Last week Bakri said Sharif had attended his study circles in Derby in the months before he died but denied radicalising him. Bakri denies ever knowing Khan. Fiaz says he was “shocked” when he heard the news about Sharif and Hanif. Last week he gave a written explanation of why he had failed to report his encounters with the bombers to the police. “After the Tel Aviv bombing, Omar and Hanif were dead and I didn’t attach any significance to Sidique Khan. I had no idea who Sidique was until after his face appeared in the papers following the 7/7 bombing. Given the time that had elapsed since I first met him, I didn’t see the significance of the connection.” He is now likely to be interviewed by Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist squad. |
| Posted by:john |