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28-07-2005 The Scotsman How many more suicide bombers wait ready to kill? By Gethin Chamberlain FEARS that further squads of suicide bombers are lying low waiting to launch a fresh wave of attacks appeared to be confirmed last night with the revelation that the 7 July suicide bombers left behind a stash of 16 unexploded nail bombs. The devices were recovered from a car believed to have been rented by suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer. It was discovered in Luton five days after the attacks. The bombers had left it at the railway station and paid for a parking ticket. Some of the bombs - assembled using home-made high explosives - were packed flat, like pancakes, while others were packed with nails to use as shrapnel. An X-ray picture of one of the bombs shows nails bulging out of the side of a bottle-shaped bomb. Terrorism experts had already warned that as many as six bomb cells could be preparing their own attacks and the revelation that 16 more ready-to-use bombs had apparently been left behind by the 7 July gang appeared to give further credence to that theory. It raises the possibility that there were other members of the 7 July cell who did not die in the explosions that claimed the lives of 56 people, including the four bombers. Police already suspected the 21 July gang had at least one more member after a fifth device was found abandoned. Yesterday, Professor Paul Wilkinson, from the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University, said the discovery of the 16 bombs suggested that there were many more terrorists still at large. "Clearly someone was intended to pick them up," he said. "Surely they would not have been left there for no reason. It makes you wonder whether there was another wave of attacks planned." He said it raised the question of whether the 7 July bombers intended to kill themselves or whether they had planned to return to the car to collect more devices to strike again. But he said the evidence from the 21 July attacks was that more people were involved in the cell than had participated in the attacks, and that that could be expected to be true with the other cells as well. "What seems to be clear from the investigation is that there are more people involved than the people whose pictures appear in the grainy CCTV photographs," he said. "It is very unlikely if someone is organising a campaign of this sort that it would just be four bombers or that the people in the CCTV pictures would be the sole members of the team." He said the discovery showed how important it was to track down not only the planner behind the attacks but also to find the other members of the cells before they could attack again. "While they are at large there is a danger of other attacks," he warned. He said police would undoubtedly have gained valuable information about the bomb maker from the devices recovered from the car, but he said the devices themselves did not indicate a particular group. "A number of groups have used nail bombs because of the additional injuries that they can cause," he said. "They are particularly vicious but not the monopoly of any one group." There were a number of possible explanations for why the bombs were left behind. The bombers may not have intended to kill themselves and were planning to return to the car to pick up more bombs to mount a second series of attacks. That would mean that all four had been careless enough to accidentally trigger their devices or that the devices were detonated by timers set by someone else. This is unlikely, as no timers have been found. Alternatively, the bombers did intend to kill themselves and left the bombs behind in the car for other members of their cell to pick up and use in more attacks. A cell would be unlikely to contain as many as 16 people and the devices recovered are small, which suggested that each bomber might carry a number of them. One possibility is that they were intended for use by one more group of four bombers, each carrying four devices. The car in which the bombs were found had been hired by Tanweer and was parked at Luton station. Police yesterday refused to confirm the number of bombs found inside. The US television network ABC News, which obtained the pictures of the bombs, also aired images yesterday from inside the train on which bomber Germaine Lindsay mounted the most deadly attack, killing himself and 26 others between King's Cross and Russell Square. It was the first time the carnage in the train had been seen by the public. The roof and floor had been blown apart and wires dangled across what remained of the mangled carriage. Robert Ayers, a security analyst, said he believed the explosives left behind were intended to be used in another attack. "I believe that the explosives that were left in that car were left there for a second strike. But the Metropolitan Police responded so quickly, they were able to get to the car and take control of the car before the second team could get the explosives and leave," he said. He said the bombs used in the attack were large and the nails had been used to increase the death toll. "The nails are put there so that when the bomb goes off, the nails will tear tissue and kill people in the area. Bombs don't kill by concussion. Small bombs, they kill by the blast effects of fragments of glass or metal, and this is designed to kill people," he said. At least one of the bombs used in the failed 21 July attacks was also packed with nails, nuts and bolts. The bomb, recovered from the bus on Hackney Road, was in a Fitness First rucksack. After the discovery of the car, police cordoned off the car park in Luton and bomb disposal teams carried out several controlled explosions. The bombers had reportedly bought a day-long parking ticket and it remains unclear whether they, or others, intended to return.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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