Related »
Showing posts with label bomb plot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bomb plot. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Related »
Sunday, October 31, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A female engineering student has been arrested in Yemen on suspicion of posting the packages containing bombs found on two cargo jets in Dubai and Britain.
The 22-year-old woman, named locally as Hanan al Samawi, was traced through a phone number left with a cargo company. Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, said the information that identified her was provided by the US and the United Arab Emirates.
She was arrested at a house in a poor area in the west of Sana'a, where she is studying medicine at the university. Her mother was also arrested, but is not a prime suspect according to her lawyer.
A group of women gathered outside the university carrying banners, some of them written in English, saying the arrested women is being used as a scapegoat.
The bomb intercepted in Britain on its way to America was designed to explode in mid-air and may have been targeted at the UK.
David Cameron said he believed the device was constructed to detonate while the aircraft was in flight.
He said a plot to blow it up over British soil could not be ruled out.
The Prime Minister's dramatic intervention came as the investigation into the plot was centring on one of al-Qaeda's most senior commanders.
US and British security officials believe Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born figurehead of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was behind the foiled attack in which two ink cartridge bombs, posted in Yemen, were intercepted in Britain and Dubai on the way to America.
Al-Awlaki, who is in hiding in Yemen, is regarded by the CIA and MI6 as the driving force behind the transformation of AQAP from a regional group into an international terrorist organisation.
Fears of more plots emerged after investigators in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, said they were examining 24 other suspect packages. Read on and comment >>> Sean Rayment, Patrick Hennessy and David Barrett | Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, April 10, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: An al-Qaeda cell was days away from carrying out an "Easter spectacular" of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, police believe.
Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the arrests of 12 men in the north west of England on Wednesday were linked to a suspected plan to launch a devastating attack this weekend.
Some of the suspects were watched by MI5 agents as they filmed themselves outside the Trafford Centre on the edge of Manchester, the Arndale Centre in the city centre, and the nearby St Ann's Square.
Police were forced to round up the alleged plotters after they were overheard discussing dates, understood to include the Easter bank holiday, one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.
"It could have been the next few days and they were talking about 10 days at the outside," one source said. "We had to act." Police are now engaged in a search for an alleged bomb factory, where explosives might have been assembled.
If such a plot was carried out, it would almost certainly have been Britain's worst terrorist attack, with the potential to cause more deaths than the suicide attacks of July 7, 2005, when 52 people were murdered. >>> By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: Three Islamic extremists are facing lengthy prison sentences after being found guilty of conspiring to kill hundreds of people in a terrorist bombing campaign.
The trio were members of an east London al Qaida-inspired terror cell that planned to detonate home-made bombs in attacks on British targets including Heathrow Airport, a jury at Woolwich Crown Court found.
But following a five-month trial the jurors failed to reach verdicts on prosecution claims that they were plotting an unprecedented wave of suicide bombings on transatlantic airliners.
The three - Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27 - had already admitted planning a series of small-scale headline-grabbing bomb attacks.
But, by a majority of 10 to two, the jurors rejected their claims that they did not plan to kill or hurt anyone in the blasts.
The eight men and four women on the jury deliberated for 56 hours and nine minutes.
But they could not agree verdicts on whether another four Muslim men - Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, Waheed Zaman, 24, and Umar Islam, 30 - were also involved in the conspiracy to murder.
All seven defendants earlier admitted conspiring to cause a public nuisance by distributing al Qaida-style videos threatening suicide attacks in Britain.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has until the end of this month to decide whether the men should face retrials on the counts on which the jurors could not reach verdicts.
An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, 27, was cleared on all charges.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, adjourned the case for sentencing at a later date. Airliner Bomb Trial: Three Muslim extremists Face Lengthy Jail Terms over Plot >>> | September 9, 2008
THE INEPENDENT:
'You Will Be Destroyed': Bombers Convicted of Heathrow Plot: The chilling threat from Abdulla Ali, a British graduate convicted yesterday of masterminding a plot to bomb Heathrow
Three young British Muslims who were turned into bombers while doing charity work in Pakistan are facing life behind bars after being convicted of plotting mass murder.
Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were accused of conspiring to bring down at least seven transatlantic airliners in mid-air, using bombs hidden in soft drinks bottles. >>> By Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter | September 9, 2008
BBC:
'Astonishment' at Terror Verdicts: Counter-terrorism officials are said to be "dismayed" by the outcome of a trial in which eight men were accused of a plot to blow up transatlantic planes.
Three men were convicted of conspiracy to murder but the jury did not convict any defendant of targeting aircraft. One man was cleared of all charges.
The BBC's Frank Gardner said there had been "astonishment" in Whitehall as the evidence was considered to be strong.
Prosecutors have until the end of the month to consider a retrial of the men. >>> | September 9, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)