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Were the suicide bombers already under surveillance?

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  • Were the suicide bombers already under surveillance?

    http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-7-2005_pg7_51

    Daily Times Monitor

    LAHORE: Seven hundred police officers arrested eight British-born ethnic Pakistanis in 24 raids in southern Britain in March 2004, reported American newspaper The New York Times. Scotland Yard’s ‘Operation Crevice’ also seized 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, which can be used in making bombs.

    The paper said the operation was a terrifying alert for the British police - long time ethnic Pakistani residents of Britain were accused of forming a sleeper cell that intended to stage an attack here. It added that another potent threat was also identified from a new source, British citizens with Pakistani roots.

    Police claim a sleeper cell of British-born residents of Pakistani origin carried out last Thursday’s bombings, said The New York Times, adding that British and European investigators were investigating whether there was a connection between the four bombers and the men who were arrested in Operation Crevice.

    One investigator told the paper that security agencies believed that at least one of the Thursday’s suicide bombers had telephone contact with a man arrested in the 2004 plot. In addition, British police were focusing on a 25-year-old Briton named Zeeshan Siddique, who was arrested in Peshawar in May on suspicion of being linked to terrorism. Two investigators said they were trying to determine if he had any connection to the men responsible for the London attacks or their associates.

    According to the newspaper, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters on Wednesday that it seemed that a “part of the team” involved in the London attacks had been “subject to partial arrest” in spring of last year, apparently in Operation Crevice.

    However, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke angrily denied the claim telling British Sky Television. “It’s completely and utterly untrue. I am absolutely staggered he should make that assertion.”

    A senior French law enforcement and intelligence official said Mohamed Sidique Khan, one of the dead suspects in the London bombings, was not arrested in the 2004 operation but appeared to have had contact with those who were. Many of the suspects arrested in the 2004 operation have been freed, senior French and Belgian law enforcement and intelligence officials told the paper.
    Hala Madrid!!
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