Two vehicles found in London packed with explosives, car explodes at Glasgow airport

[Al-khiyal]

LONDON, June 29, 2007 - British police defused a bomb found in a parked car in central London on Friday, and the new government called an emergency meeting of senior security chiefs to investigate what many feared could have been a planned terror attack.

A British security official told The Associated Press that the car was packed with explosives, gas canisters and nuts and bolts and would have caused "significant damage."

He said there were similarities between the device and vehicle bombs used by insurgents in Iraq.

"Forensic staff are still examining the device, but once we know more about it, we'll know more about what type of individuals are behind this," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details.

The incident comes a week before the second anniversary of the July 7 London bombings, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 bus and subway passengers.

The official said Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 also would examine possible connections between Friday's incident and at least two similar foiled plots — including a planned attack on a West End nightclub in 2004 and a thwarted attempt to use limousines packed with gas canisters to attack targets in London and New York.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took office on Wednesday, said the incident was a reminder that Britain faces "a serious and continuous threat" and the "need to be alert."

"I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days," Brown said.

Officers were called to The Haymarket shortly before 2 a.m., a police statement said.

The Haymarket is the site of restaurants, bars, a cinema complex and, most famously, theaters. On a Thursday night, the area would have been buzzing with crowds of people. The broad street links Piccadilly Circus in the north to the Pall Mall at its southern end.

Forensic officers in white suits were examining a silver sedan and had placed a blue tent-like cover over the rear of the vehicle, which was parked outside an American Express foreign exchange office.

The area around the vehicle was cordoned off as a precaution on Friday morning. London transport officials said the Piccadilly Circus underground train station was closed.

Vehicle in London packed with explosives

[Cheba_Mami]

attacking people is never good! it is totally not understandable. Not in London not in Madrid. It gives a religion the face of terror. Same for the US by the way. I am not against Americans, i have family there too and i love the place but i do not like American style of making war here and there. Because that is clearly wrong just as wrong as these bombing terrorists.

[Al-khiyal]

June 29, 2007 -- Over the past two years anti-terrorism officers have scaled a steep learning curve as they try to tackle, and understand, the threat posed to Britain by Islamist terrorists.

The threat posed by the IRA at the end of the past century was very different from that of today. Inside Scotland Yard, detectives are faced with the knowledge that there are thousands of Islamist terror suspects at large, some of whom pose no immediate, direct threat; others who do.

The difficulty lies in choosing whom to watch when. Currently anti-terrorist officers are working on intelligence that suggests there are 250 high-risk terror suspects in the UK and 700 or so classed as medium risk. But individuals can swiftly move from peripheral figures to high-risk figures. Crucial to counter-terrorism are the choices senior officers must make when deciding which groups or individuals to target.

Today's discovery of a car bomb device in the heart of London's West End confirms what many experts within anti-terrorism have feared for some months. While the July 7 and July 21 attacks involved rucksack bombs carried by individuals intent on suicide and targeted on the transport system, no one has been in any doubt that terrorists are constantly changing their tactics and targets.

On the streets of Baghdad the use of car bombs is a daily tactic which reaps horrific results. Senior officers have been waiting and dreading for those tactics to be employed in the UK by homegrown Islamist extremists.

Recently Scotland Yard admitted that they were carrying out anti-terrorist spot checks on lorries entering the capital.

There are growing concerns that iconic sights will be targeted. For example, last week concern was raised privately about security at Wimbledon, when it was noted that there are no vehicle crash barriers in the streets directly outside the tennis championships.

Evidence of the past three years has also indicated that the transport system is not the only target being considered. The plotters in the Crevice fertiliser bomb plot were heard talking about several targets, including nightclubs and the Bluewater shopping centre, back in 2004.

However, despite private concerns of car bombs being used at landmark sites, there has been to date no intelligence to suggest that the tactic was being discussed by extremists.

The discovery of the car bomb today in Haymarket comes, therefore, out of the blue.

Security forces fear Baghdad-style tactics in London

[Al-khiyal]

LONDON - Police in London's bustling nightclub and theater district on Friday defused a car bomb that could have killed hundreds after an ambulance crew spotted smoke coming from a Mercedes filled with a lethal mix of gasoline, propane and nails. Hours later, police confirmed a second explosives-rigged car was found nearby.

The first car bomb, found near Piccadilly Circus, was powerful enough to have caused "significant injury or loss of life" at a time when hundreds were in the area, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said.

Clarke said Friday evening that the second car — another Mercedes — was originally parked illegally in same area, but had been towed from the West Eng to an impound lot near Hyde Park.

"The vehicle was found to contain very similar materials to those that had been found in the first car," he said. "There was a considerable amount of fuel and gas canisters. As in the first vehicle, there was also a quantity of nails. This like the first device was potentially viable."

The discoveries came just ahead of the second anniversary of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings that killed 52 people on three London subways and a bus.

"We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism," Britain's new home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said after an emergency meeting of top officials.

In Washington, two officials said British authorities found no link between the defused car bomb and any terrorist group during the early hours of the investigation. The officials, who were briefed on the inquiry, said the investigation had yielded no suspects and no definitive description of anyone leaving the vehicle. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Police were examining footage from closed-circuit TV cameras, Clarke said, hoping the surveillance network that covers much of central London will help them track down the drivers of the cars.

Rep. Peter King, R-New York, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee who was briefed on the investigation, said British authorities had recovered a cell phone that they believed was to be the trigger for the explosion.

"They found a cell phone and it was going to be used to detonate the bomb," he said.

The events unfolded when an ambulance crew — responding to a call just before 1:30 a.m. about a person who had fallen at a Haymarket nightclub — noticed smoke coming from a car parked in front of the building, Clarke said.

The crew alerted police, and a bomb squad manually disabled the device, Clarke said.

Photographs of the metallic green Mercedes discovered first show a canister bearing the words "patio gas," indicating it was propane, next to the car. The back door was open with blankets spilling out. The car was removed from the scene after a bomb squad disabled the explosives.

The Haymarket thoroughfare is packed with restaurants, bars, a cinema complex and West End theaters, and was buzzing at that hour. "Phantom of the Opera" is playing at Her Majesty's Theater down the street.

It was ladies' night Thursday, nicknamed "Sugar 'N' Spice," at the Tiger Tiger nightclub, a three-story venue that at full capacity can pack in 1,770 people and stays open until 3 a.m.

Police also were investigating the possibility that the planned attack could have been criminal in nature. Authorities closed the Piccadilly Circus subway station for eight hours and cordoned off a 10-block area around the scene.

The incident triggered a series of security scares across central London, and police closed Park Lane, Fleet Street and nearby Chancery Lane to investigate other suspicious vehicles.

A British security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details, said there were similarities between the device and vehicle bombs used by insurgents in Iraq. But the two officials in Washington said it was too early in the investigation to tell if those similarities were significant.

The British security official also said the domestic spy agency MI5 would examine possible connections between Friday's bomb attempt and at least two similar foiled plots — to attack a London nightclub in 2004 and to pack limousines in New York with gas canisters and shrapnel.

In the 2004 plot, accused members of an al-Qaida-linked terror cell were convicted of conspiring to cause explosions. One of the possible targets M15 overheard them discussing was the Ministry of Sound, one of London's biggest and most famous nightclubs.

One man is heard saying the plan was to "Blow the whole thing up."

Gordon Brown, who only Wednesday succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister, called it a reminder that Britain faces a serious and continuous threat of terrorist attacks: "I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days."

There had been no prior intelligence of planned attacks from the al-Qaida terror network, a British government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

Londoners were relatively unfazed by the news. People crowded onto buses and subway trains during the afternoon rush hour, shopping streets were busy and sidewalk cafes did brisk business.

"Sure, it's disturbing, and obviously it reminds everyone of 7/7," said Ian Hiskos, 32, eating at a cafe across the block from the police cordon on Haymarket. "I try not to think about these things."

The terror threat level in Britain has remained at "severe" — meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely — since last August.

On Friday, Metropolitan Police said it sent more officers on the streets of central London. Authorities also stepped up security at Wimbledon.

One analyst said the bombers could be trying to send Britain's new leader a message.

"It's a way of testing Gordon Brown," said Bob Ayers, a security expert at the Chatham House think tank. "It's not too far-fetched to assume it was designed to expedite the decision on withdrawal (from Iraq)."

The U.S. government urged Americans abroad to be vigilant but officials said they saw no potential terrorist threat in the United States ahead of next week's July 4 Independence Day holiday.

"At this time we are characterizing this as a localized incident in London," said Laura Keehner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.

New York strengthened its already tight security as a precaution, putting additional police in Times Square and the mass transit system.

"We're going to ramp up a little bit, but nothing dramatic," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. "We'll take a little bit of extra precaution. Some of you will notice, some of you won't — but we have to be cognizant."

Explosives-packed cars found in London

[Bent_Bladi]

Ya satter... those people that were around the area must be so shaken

At least it wasn't at the airport... damn, that was hell

[Cheba_Mami]

i hate terrorists
look what they do to normal people!

[Bent_Bladi]

i hate terrorists
look what they do to normal people!

yeah, me too...