Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Glasgow Airport bombers planned attacks on nightclubs - Muslim doctor targetted clubs with failed explosives
Glasgow Airport bombers planned attacks on nightclubs - Muslim doctor targetted clubs with failed explosives
April 11, 2008
Glasgow Airport bombers 'planned nightclub terror campaign'
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Last Updated: 6:30pm BST 11/04/2008
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Islamic extremists planned to carry out a series of spectacular terror attacks against British nightclubs, the Old Bailey has heard. Glasgow Airport bomber's email to brother Hundreds of people at one club in London escaped death only because two car bombs packed with improvised explosives and gas cylinders failed to go off.
One of the devices was left directly outside the Tiger Tiger club in the capital's Haymarket area and the second was positioned further down the street. The bombers tried to set them off with mobile phones but the fume-filled cars did not ignite and the club was successfully evacuated. Details of the attempted bombing and a further terror campaign emerged on Friday as an NHS doctor was jailed for failing to tell police about his brother's involvement in the London car bombs and the terror attack on Glasgow airport. Sabeel Ahmed, 26, an Indian NHS doctor living in Liverpool, pleaded guilty to failing to disclose information relating to an act of terrorism and was sentenced to 18 months. He failed to tell police his brother Kafeel had sent him a text message half an hour before he drove a burning Jeep into the Scottish airport. Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said Kafeel and others had targeted "clubs and places of entertainment where the devastating effect and loss of life would be the greatest". He said: "This was to be a campaign the bombers hoped would increase the level of fear felt by the general population in this country in the further threat of Islamic extremism." |
The message received by Sabeel told him to go to an email account where his brother had left instructions telling him to pretend that Kafeel, 28, was in Iceland studying global warming, the court heard.
Although Sabeel did not access the account until an hour after the attacks, he kept up his brother's pretence when arrested by police. Having served 270 days he will now be released into the hands of immigration officials and will be deported to Bangalore.
The court heard the message would have been of "considerable assistance" to counter-terrorist police.
During the hearing, new details emerged of how Kafeel, who died as a result of the injuries he received, and another man who faces trial later this year, had allegedly planned a prolonged bombing campaign against night clubs in the spring and summer of last year.
The devices planted outside Tiger Tiger in June were viable but may have failed to go off because there was not enough air in the vehicles for the gas mixture to ignite, the court was told.
There was more equipment in an alleged Glasgow bomb factory but the plans became a suicide mission when the devices in London failed to go off and the bombers feared they would be arrested, it was claimed.
A series of calls had been made to the mobile phones designed to set off the explosion but it had only led to a small explosion in the second car which failed to ignite the main charge.
"These were plainly viable devices which could quite easily have killed if they had exploded with the desired effect, many, many people," said Mr Laidlaw. "The fact they did not was not for want of trying."
The court also heard alleged reconnaissance trips were made to London on May 18 and May 20.
Mr Laidlaw said: "This was to be a campaign in which the bombers were hoping they would be able to carry out a series of large and spectacular attacks so as to maximise loss of life."
The bombers allegedly met together on Edgware Road after the failed attacks and stayed overnight in East London before returning to Scotland, arriving back at midnight on June 29.
That night, it is claimed, they prepared the third vehicle at the bomb factory and at 3.15pm Kafeel drove past the taxi rank at Glasgow Airport and turned sharply, crashing into the pillars outside the main doors before reversing and trying again.
The Jeep came to rest just 20 feet from queuing passengers, some of whom were injured in the panic, and he allegedly began throwing petrol bombs.
As Kafeel got out of the vehicle he was "engulfed in flames that swept around the Jeep and terminal building," said Mr Laidlaw.
Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said it was clear from the email Kafeel sent to his brother that he expected to die in the attack.
But he added to Sabeel: "I accept that so far as you personally were concerned there is no sign of your being an extremist or party to extremist views." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/11/nglasgow411.xml
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Muslim doctor plotted terror attacks in London and Glasgow
Adam Fresco, Crime Correspondent
A Muslim doctor who died after a failed terror attack on Glasgow airport had plotted a campaign of "spectacular" terrorist car bomb attacks designed to devastate Britain, a court heard today.
Kafeel Ahmed, 28, had targeted city nightclubs with explosives made at his home in Glasgow before turning his attention to the airport on its busiest day of the year.
Two car bombs left near nightclubs in the West End of London at the end of June last year had failed to explode when activated by mobile phone.
The next day, knowing the police were closing in, Ahmed launched the airport suicide mission and drove another car bomb into Glasgow Airport.
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Driving a Jeep Cherokee he aimed for the entrance doors but crashed into the pillars to the right of them, the Old Bailey heard.
Jonathan Laidlaw, for the prosecution, said: "He then, having found himself from his perspective out of position, reversed the Jeep and made the first of a number of attempts to drive the vehicle through the airport door, repeatedly hitting pillars and the door frame.
"Despite his efforts, the vehicle became trapped. Those who witnessed him described a set and determined face as he stared forward.
"At that point, the vehicle was then 20ft from passengers queuing within the terminal building.
"His passenger lowered his window and threw a petrol bomb across the bonnet in the direction of the taxi rank and then threw a second of these devices in the opposite direction.
"At the same time the driver, the defendant's brother, began to pour and splash fuel from a can on to the area outside the car window and appeared to throw a petrol bomb.
"He got out of the vehicle and was engulfed in flames that swept around the Jeep and terminal building. He appeared to try and prevent others from getting to him or the vehicle. He kicked out but eventually, he being on fire, he was extinguished, subdued, handcuffed and arrested."
Full details of the terror plot emerged for the first time today after Kafeel's brother Dr Sabeel Ahmed, 26, an NHS doctor, admitted failing to disclose information to police after the attacks.
Adam Fresco, Crime Correspondent
A Muslim doctor who died after a failed terror attack on Glasgow airport had plotted a campaign of "spectacular" terrorist car bomb attacks designed to devastate Britain, a court heard today.
Kafeel Ahmed, 28, had targeted city nightclubs with explosives made at his home in Glasgow before turning his attention to the airport on its busiest day of the year.
Two car bombs left near nightclubs in the West End of London at the end of June last year had failed to explode when activated by mobile phone.
The next day, knowing the police were closing in, Ahmed launched the airport suicide mission and drove another car bomb into Glasgow Airport.
Driving a Jeep Cherokee he aimed for the entrance doors but crashed into the pillars to the right of them, the Old Bailey heard.
Jonathan Laidlaw, for the prosecution, said: "He then, having found himself from his perspective out of position, reversed the Jeep and made the first of a number of attempts to drive the vehicle through the airport door, repeatedly hitting pillars and the door frame.
"Despite his efforts, the vehicle became trapped. Those who witnessed him described a set and determined face as he stared forward.
"At that point, the vehicle was then 20ft from passengers queuing within the terminal building.
"His passenger lowered his window and threw a petrol bomb across the bonnet in the direction of the taxi rank and then threw a second of these devices in the opposite direction.
"At the same time the driver, the defendant's brother, began to pour and splash fuel from a can on to the area outside the car window and appeared to throw a petrol bomb.
"He got out of the vehicle and was engulfed in flames that swept around the Jeep and terminal building. He appeared to try and prevent others from getting to him or the vehicle. He kicked out but eventually, he being on fire, he was extinguished, subdued, handcuffed and arrested."
Full details of the terror plot emerged for the first time today after Kafeel's brother Dr Sabeel Ahmed, 26, an NHS doctor, admitted failing to disclose information to police after the attacks.
Mr Laidlaw said: "Fortunately neither of the devices, while both viable, detonated properly. Both were disarmed by the authorities."
After the failure of the first attacks, Kafeel Ahmed returned to Glasgow where he was based and set up the attack on the airport.
Mr Laidlaw said: "Fortunately no member of the public lost their life in these attacks although Kafeel Ahmed died in August of his injuries."
"He (Sabeel) came into possession of significant information about the attack and those responsible for it and thereafter failed to make the required disclosure," Mr Laidlaw said. "He had no reasonable excuse for that failure.
"The information was the identities of those involved in the bombing. The defendant could not of course have known conclusively whether all those concerned had been detained or whether they were free to continue with their terrorist activity.
"He would no doubt have had other information had he come forward, such as the addresses where his brother and brother's associates lived."
Sentencing Sabeel, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith told him: "You are the brother of Kafeel Ahmed who was at the wheel of the Cherokee jeep driven into the terminal building at Gatwick Airport on June 30, 2007.
"Just before he set off on the attack he sent you a text message telling you to access the site to which he had saved his document.
"It is clear that Kafeel Ahmed wrote it in anticipation of his own death in the hope that his body may be unrecognisable and unidentifiable, and asked you to say nothing about your knowledge of his death but to keep up a pretence that he was in Iceland on some secret project connected with his work as a scientist.
"It is clear you did not receive it until afterwards. Having opened the document on the website and realising your brother had been involved in a very serious offence, you kept that to yourself rather than complying with the duty imposed on you by statute of going to the authorities and sharing your knowledge.
"The maximum sentence is five years imprisonment. I accept there is no sign of you being an extremist or party to extremist views.
"The sentence for this offence is 18 months imprisonment, 270 days of which have been spent in custody, which will therefore effectively mean your immediate release from this sentence."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3730133.ece
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