Edinburgh, Scotland – Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader threatened a jittery Britain on Tuesday with more attacks, accusing London of defying the Islamic world by honoring novelist Salman Rushdie with a knighthood.
Meanwhile, a man who was engulfed in flames after allegedly crashing a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas cylinders into Glasgow’s airport in a failed terrorist attack is unlikely to survive his severe burns, according to a doctor who treated him.
The tape of a 20-minute speech by al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahri surfaced on the Internet amid heightened concern about terrorism in Britain, following last month’s attack in Glasgow and the discovery of two car bombs that failed to go off in London.
“We will continue to tackle the threat from international terrorism as a priority in order to prevent the risk of attacks on British interests at home and overseas, including from al-Qaeda,” Britain’s Foreign Office said in reaction to al-Zawahri’s tape.
“On the Rushdie point, the government has already made clear that Rushdie’s honor was not intended as an insult to Islam,” the Foreign Office added. “It was a reflection of his contribution to literature throughout a long and distinguished career.”
In the tape, monitored by the U.S.-based SITE intelligence group, al-Zawahri said the knighthood announced last month defied the Islamic world and that a “very precise response” was being prepared. The authenticity of the tape, also reported by another U.S.-based intelligence monitoring group, IntelCenter, could not be independently confirmed, and it was unclear when it was recorded.
Addressing Prime Minister Gordon Brown, al-Zawahri said Britain’s strategy in the Middle East “has brought tragedy and defeat upon you, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in the center of London,” an apparent reference to July 7, 2005, suicide bombings that killed 52 London bus and subway passengers.
Britain experienced a grim reminder of the 2005 attacks on June 29, when police found two unexploded car bombs in London. A day later, a Jeep Cherokee was rammed into a Glasgow airport building.
Prosecutors suspect Bilal Abdullah, a 27-year-old doctor born in Britain and raised in Iraq, and Kafeel Ahmed, a 27-year-old aeronautical engineer from India, carried out the attempted bombings in London before returning to Scotland – where Abdullah worked at a hospital – and attacking the airport. Abdullah is so far the only suspect to have been charged.
Ahmed had been in the Jeep loaded with gas cylinders that was rammed into the airport entrance, shattering the glass doors, and then ignited into a raging fire. Witnesses saw his body in flames after the attack.
Ahmed’s “prognosis is not good and he is not likely to survive,” a member of the medical team that treated him at the Royal Alexandra Hospital near Glasgow said Tuesday. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because details about patients are not to be made public.
