Blasts 'have al-Qaeda mark'

2005-07-14 15:55

London - The London attacks which killed at least 52 people last week were the work of suicide bombers and bore "every hallmark of al-Qaeda", Scotland Yard said on Thursday.

"They went onto those tubes or bus to kill, and presumably accepted they would be killed," Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair told foreign journalists in London.

"You don't need to be a suicide bomber in a liberal democracy. They've chosen to be."

"This does have every hallmark of al-Qaeda," he added. "That makes things very different."

Most terrorist organisations used bomb attacks to force governments to the negotiating table, he explained, noting: "What we have here is people bombing the table."

Hunt stepped up

Blair also confirmed that police have identified the four bombers and that three were British nationals.

"As far as we are concerned we are as certain as we can be that they were carrying the bombs."

The comments came as police stepped up their hunt for planners behind the deadly attack, in which four bombs tore through subway trains and a bus last on Thursday, killing at least 52 people and injuring 700.

Blair reiterated that another attempted attack in London was "likely" but added that "it doesn't mean it's certain. It doesn't mean it will inevitably succeed".

Asked about the threat of a chemical attack, he replied: "We have no indication of anything like that being planned".

Regarding the police manhunt for the masterminds behind Britain's worst attack to date, he said: "That is the absolute focus of the current investigation".

He declined to comment further on the investigation, saying that "it changes every hour".

Muslim community

The police chief also stressed the importance of collaboration with Britain's 1.6-million-strong Muslim community.

"There's nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist Muslim or a fundamentalist Christian or a fundamentalist Jew, but we must stop it drifting to extremism."

"It means that there are people inside the West who are prepared to take this particular doctrine (of Islamic extremism).

"It means we have to work with the Muslim community in a new way."

He also praised offers of support from police and security services worldwide to aid the investigation in what he called an "international brotherhood of law enforcement".

- AFP