London – British and Saudi investigators are examining a series of phone messages and e-mails between leaders of the al-Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia and unknown people in Britain for possible links to the recent bomb attacks in London or unidentified extremists in Britain, according to a Saudi official.
After the July 7 bombings of London’s transit system that killed 56, the British requested further information about the calls, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and they are now part of the ongoing investigation. British officials declined to comment.
The possible Saudi connection is one of several lines of inquiry investigators are following in their continuing hunt for those responsible for two sets of attacks in London – the July 7 bombings of three subways trains and a double-decker bus, and an abortive attack two weeks later in which assailants failed to detonate explosives on an identical combination of three subway trains and a bus.
Despite their success last week in rounding up all of the suspects in the failed July 21 attacks, investigators concede they have not answered several key questions.
Were the two sets of attacks linked? How were they planned and financed? Was there a larger network of extremists, domestic or foreign, behind the bombings? And, most crucially, are there more attacks in the pipeline?
“We’re very pleased with what we managed to achieve last week,” said a British official, who refused to be identified, in keeping with government custom. “But there’s so much more we need to find out.”
Police in the seaside city of Brighton seized six men and a woman Sunday in connection with the attacks, while authorities said they would apply today for the extradition from Italy of Isaac Hamdi, also known as Osman Hussain, one of the suspects in the July 21 attacks.
The four suspects in the July 7 attacks all died in the bombings, while those allegedly responsible for the botched July 21 attacks fled the scene.
After receiving tips from the public, police seized one of the suspects Wednesday and swooped down on two more Friday, while authorities in Rome arrested Hamdi, who had sought refuge there.
Another man was arrested in London in connection with a fifth bomb that was abandoned unexploded in a West London park.
All of the men are being interrogated. Under Britain’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws, they can held for up to 14 days without charge.
Both sets of attackers were young Muslims with a growing sense of rage over Britain’s participation in U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, officials say.
Three of the four men behind the July 7 attacks were British nationals of Pakistani origin who were born and raised in the northern city of Leeds; the fourth was a Jamaican-born convert to Islam who also lived near Leeds for a time.
The July 21 suspects were all London-based men of East African origin.
London suspects
Four men arrested in the botched July 21 bombings in London:
Yassin Hassan Omar, a Somali man arrested in Birmingham
Muktar Said Ibrahim, an Ethiopian arrested in London
Ramzi Mohammed, arrested in London with Ibrahim
Isaac Hamdi, also known as Osman Hussain, held in Rome
