Bin Laden's hand in bombings

2005-07-24 21:44

Washington - The timing and execution of recent attacks in London and Egypt suggest that terror mastermind Osama bin Laden may still be directing operations of his al-Qaeda network, US media reported on Sunday.

At least 88 people were killed in three bomb blasts early Saturday in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.

London was hit Thursday by a second wave of bomb attacks on its mass transit system.

Unlike the July 7 attacks that killed 56 in London, no one was injured in Thursday's botched strikes.

Counter-terrorism experts in Europe and the Middle East interviewed by The Washington Post said similarities in the attacks on England and Egypt suggest that the al-Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations.

Experts believe, however, that the attacks were carried out locally by groups working independently of each other.

"All of these groups maintain a link of sorts with bin Laden, either through internet websites, or through messengers, or by going to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan and maybe not necessarily meeting with bin Laden himself, but with his people," Prince Turki al Faisal, who was named this week as Saudi Arabia's new ambassador to the United States, told the Post.

"What the London and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks may have in common are the people giving directions: This is what needs to be done, and this is how you do it," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the centre for the study of terrorism and political violence at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

The chair of the senate intelligence committee, Pat Roberts, said the London attacks definitely were linked.

"I think if you look at the knapsacks, if you look at the bombs, if you look at the explosives, there is a connection there.

"There is a connection with al-Qaeda in regards to the way that those bombs are constructed," he said on CNN. "There is some evidence that you have networks within networks, albeit they were local, but I don't have any question in my mind that this is all connected," Roberts said.

- AFP