Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Suicide bombers identified - Al Qaeda link is confirmed Suicide bombers identified - Al Qaeda link is confirmedJuly 14, 2005 Authorities identify all 4 suicide bombers in London attacks: police chief
LONDON (AP) - Police believe they have identified all four suicide bombers who carried out the deadly attacks on London subway trains and a bus last week, the city's police chief said Thursday. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair told the Foreign Press Association that police believe "that we know who the four people carrying the bombs were . . . and we believe they are all dead." "We are as certain as we can be that four people were killed and they were the four people carrying bombs," Blair said. His comments were the first public confirmation from police that the July 7 attackers were suicide bombers. Bombs exploded on three subway trains and a double-decker bus, killing at least 53 people. News reports have quoted police sources as saying three of the bombers were Britons of Pakistani descent, and a fourth was a British resident born in Jamaica. Blair declined to comment on that report, nor would he say how many suspects were being sought. "We don't know if there is a fifth man, or a sixth man, a seventh man," he said, but added that police were trying to determine who organized the attack. The Times of London, quoting unidentified police sources, said detectives were interested in locating Magdy el-Nashar, 33, an Egyptian-born academic who recently taught chemistry at Leeds University. The Times said he was believed to have rented one of the homes being searched in Leeds. A spokesman at North Carolina State University said el-Nashar studied chemical engineering there, beginning in January 2000. Saad Khan, the chemical engineering department's director of graduate programs, said he remembered that el-Nashar applied for admission while living in Egypt. But by the end of the spring semester, el-Nashar had changed direction and decided to pursue a doctorate at Leeds instead, Khan said. In a statement Thursday, Leeds University said el-Nashar enrolled in October 2000 to do biochemical research, sponsored by the National Research Center in Cairo, Egypt. It said he earned a doctorate May 6. "We understand he was seeking a post-doctorate position in the U.K.," the university said. "His visa was updated by the Home Office earlier this year. He has not been seen on the campus since the beginning of July." Neighbours said el-Nashar recently left Britain, saying he had a visa problem, The Times reported. News reports have identified three Britons of Pakistani descent as suspects in the attacks. A U.S. government official confirmed that Shahzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Mohammed Sidique Khan are believed to have been three of the bombers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because British investigators have not publicly released the identities. News reports identified the fourth man as Jamaica-born Briton Lindsey Germaine.
The Daily Telegraph said police were trying to identify a man seen standing near the four suspects on the Luton railway station platform, where they apparently boarded a train for London on July 7. The Evening Standard reported that police spotted a fifth man on closed-circuit TV showing the group at London's King's Cross station about 20 minutes before the explosions. Late Wednesday, Scotland Yard said anti-terror police had raided a residence northwest of London. Officers carried out a forensic examination, but police would not say why they targeted the house in a quiet residential street in Aylesbury, about 65 kilometres from London and 32 km from Luton - where a vehicle believed to be linked to the attacks was towed away Wednesday. A British security official told The Associated Press on Thursday that Britain's intelligence and security services were co-operating closely with their Pakistani counterparts because of the suspects' links with the country. ---------------------
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1694998,00.html
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