Blasts: UK cops 'ill-equipped'
11/05/2006 11:40  - (SA)  

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London - Britain's security services were ill-equipped to prevent last year's July 7 London transport bombings which killed 56 people because of a lack of resources, an official report concluded on Thursday.

The report, by an influential committee of lawmakers, noted that two of the four suicide bombers who struck the transport network had already come to the attention of the intelligence authorities.

Nothing was done about them because "there were more pressing priorities," the long-awaited report into Britain's worst terrorist atrocity said.

The document, drawn up by parliament's intelligence and security committee, also concluded that two of the four men, who all lived in Britain, "likely had some contact" with members of the al-Qaeda terror network.

The two, Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, were known to have travelled to Pakistan, the report said.

It added: "It has not yet been established who they met in Pakistan, but it is assessed as likely that they had some contact with al-Qaeda figures."

However, the report dismissed theories which circulated after the bombings of a fifth bomber or "mastermind" who may have subsequently fled the country.

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