LONDON — Nine men arrested in Britain on terrorism charges last week found inspiration and bomb-making instructions in an English-language Internet magazine published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, British investigators reportedly said.
The revelation, as relayed by British newspapers, provided the first known link between the nine British-based suspects, some of Bangladeshi origin, and an anti-Western terrorism campaign being waged by Yemen-based jihadists of Yemeni, Saudi, U.S. and other nationalities under the aegis of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
With the founding al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan under constant U.S. pressure, the Yemen-based group in recent months has become the most active branch of al-Qaeda. The group’s outreach magazine, Inspire, published a first issue in July, including the article “Making a bomb in the kitchen of your mom,” and has come out with two issues since then. All three were written in easily accessible English.
A statement issued Monday by British police said that between Oct. 1 and Dec. 20, the day of the arrests, the nine suspects were “researching, discussing, carrying out reconnaissance on, and agreeing potential targets” for a terrorist bombing as well as “igniting and testing incendiary material.”
Specialists have suggested that Inspire is being edited by Samir Khan, a Saudi-born U.S. citizen raised in Queens, N.Y., and Charlotte, N.C., before traveling to Yemen to join al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Khan, they have said, likely operates under the direction of Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S.-born cleric who also has found refuge in Yemen.
Peter Neumann, a terrorism specialist at King’s College in London who is teaching this year at Georgetown’s Center for Peace and Security Studies, said Internet-born motivation and instruction is an increasing worry among anti-terrorism officials in Europe and the United States.
