'UK most at risk from al-Qaeda'

2006-12-07 07:19

London - Britain is the Western country most at risk to suffer a terrorist attack at the hands of the al-Qaeda terror network, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing unnamed government officials.

The newspaper also said the terror group was rebuilding its headquarters' operations in Pakistan, making Britain particularly vulnerable because of the large number of British residents who travel to the South Asian country on a regular basis.

"It's an emerging pattern. Training is taking place in Pakistan and contacts are continuing after the training," one unnamed official told the FT.

The conclusions have been reached on examination of past plots and various other evidence.

Another unidentified official told the newspaper: "We are seeing an increase slowly in the level of sophistication of al-Qaeda directed or inspired attacks."

The officials said that Dhiren Barot, a British Muslim convert who was jailed for life last month for plotting to kill thousands of people in devastating terror attacks in Britain and the United States, was directed by al-Qaeda.

They also said that two of the four Islamist suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters on London's transport network in July 2005, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, are thought to have visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

Though the United States remains al-Qaeda's top target, Britain is an easier mark, the officials told the FT.

"We are talking about risk: risk is made up of a combination of threat and vulnerability ... If the threat is big, but you are not vulnerable, there is a low risk," an official told the business daily.

"But if the threat is high and vulnerability is high, then you are in trouble."

- AFP