Two senior al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia made money transfers and used coded text messages to communicate with suspected terrorists in Britain before last month's attacks in London, according to officials in the kingdom. The two men, of Moroccan descent, have since been shot dead. Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari, allegedly al-Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia, was killed in Riyadh three weeks ago and Abdel Karim al-Mejati died in a shoot-out in the central al-Qassim region in April. Saudi security officials suspect both men of involvement in the attacks in London on July 7 and 21 and say that al-Qaeda is definitely operating in Britain. "It's beyond doubt they're active in your country," said one. Huge amounts of chemicals and other bomb-making materials were found at al-Hayari's hideout. Al-Mejati is said to have planned the train bombings in Madrid in March last year. The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that Scotland Yard was investigating evidence that the two waves of terrorist attacks in London were also planned in Saudi Arabia. In an exclusive interview, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to London, said this week that his country had warned Britain less than four months ago that such an attack was pending. Scotland Yard is investigating who received the coded messages and money - transferred from Saudi to Britain via businesses at both ends before July this year. A Saudi security adviser said: "We are trying to establish whether the money was directly linked to the individuals who carried out either the first or the second sets of bombings in London. The messages and the money transfers were highly professional. They were using SIM cards for six hours and then throwing them away."
Last week The Sunday Telegraph revealed that Hussain Osman, 27, the suspected failed Shepherd's Bush bomber, had called a mobile phone in Saudi Arabia shortly before his arrest. Saudi security officials said Osman was phoning his parents, of Ethiopian extraction, while travelling by Eurostar from London to Rome. They are believed to have been living in the Jeddah area, near the Red Sea, for several years. The call was monitored by a British intelligence agency as Osman spoke first to his mother and then to his father. His parents are not suspected of involvement in terrorism.