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Rediff.com  » News » Glasgow bomb suspects left suicide note behind: media

Glasgow bomb suspects left suicide note behind: media

Source: PTI
July 05, 2007 17:34 IST
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Two suspected Al Qaeda terrorists who crashed a jeep into Glasgow airport left behind a suicide note explaining their motives and grievances, the media reported on Thursday.

According to The Times, police did not say where the apparent suicide note was found but the language in it indicated that the men intended to blow up the vehicle while they were inside.

The suicide note reportedly explained their motives behind the attack as well as grievances.

Both men survived the attack although Khalid Ahmed, the driver, suffered 90 per cent burns and is in a critical condition.

The focus is now on the role of Bilal Abdulla, the Iraqi doctor who was a passenger in the jeep that rammed into the terminal at Glasgow airport. He was not badly injured.

There were claims on Thursday night that the Indian man arrested in Liverpool, Sabeel Ahmed, was seen in Cambridge with Abdulla.

Police sources claimed that three of the suspects were related and were raised in Bangalore. One of them, Mohammed Asif Ali was released without charge in Australia. The other five young medics under arrest are of Middle Eastern origin.

Officers suspect that some of the doctors arrested in connection with the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow planned their attacks in Britain. Detectives are also investigating whether the terrorist cell was assembled by radicalised junior doctors in this country. They may have met in Cambridge, CNN claimed.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Abdulla was also associated with members of the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir in Cambridge.

Shiraz Maher, a former member of Hizb ut-Tahir, said: 'He (Abdullah) used to come to my house. We were extremists ourselves so we didn't really think anything he was saying was worse than us. He used to read a lot of Arabic press and watch Al Jazeera and it gave him a different perspective to us. We mixed with other people to try and recruit them and he could have used doctors' digs to meet the others.'

Maher said he was introduced to another young Arabic man who was living in the same quarters as Abdulla who could have been Mohammed Asha, the neurosurgeon arrested on the M6 motorway on Saturday.

The disclosures called into question the vetting procedures on Abdulla, who moved to Britain in 2004 and lived in Cambridge before moving to work at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Wednesday an emergency review of how foreign doctors were recruited.

After a five-day investigation, police are confident they have all the 'major suspects' in custody although not all of those arrested are expected to be charged.

The current terrorist threat level was reduced on Wednesday from critical to severe. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said there was 'no intelligence' to suggest another attack was imminent.

The focus today is on the role of Abdulla, the Iraqi doctor who was a passenger in the Jeep that rammed into Glasgow airport on Saturday. The 27-year-old was studying in

Baghdad when the Iraq war broke out.    

A former tutor claimed he had become seriously radicalised and was heavily influenced by the death of friends in the 'resistance to the occupation.'

At least three suspects are linked to Cambridge. Abdulla lived there briefly and worked at Addenbrooke's hospital. It is believed that is where he met Mohammed Asha.
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