Terrorism experts believe the attack was carried out by a British cell with no direct links to bin Laden's group
A homegrown British terrorist group inspired by al-Qaeda, but with no direct links, was behind the London bombings, leading terrorism experts claimed yesterday.
Rejecting suggestions by officials that the organisation headed by Osama bin Laden carried out the attacks, Rohan Gunaratna said the connection with the group responsible was 'ideological'.
'It is a British cell that has existed in the UK for some time,' the author of the acclaimed book Inside al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror said from Canberra, where he is training Australian national police. 'It had perfect knowledge of the targets. It has no operational link to the al-Qaeda leadership.'
Dr Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, said al-Qaeda's operations had been severely restricted since it carried out the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. The following month, thousands of US-led troops poured into Afghanistan, scattering thousands of devotees from training camps, killing and arresting hundreds more, and overthrowing the country's hardline Islamic government.
With less than 500 fighters left, mostly confined to Afghanistan and border regions in Pakistan and Iran, al-Qaeda was no longer capable of carrying out major attacks, he contended. Members were still involved in terrorism elsewhere in the world, but he was certain that there had been no such connection in London. If the Spanish-based terrorist cell behind the Madrid subway bombings in March 2004 was any indication, those involved would not have even trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
'Al-Qaeda's focus is international terrorism, but it is very difficult for them to operate with the same efficiency as before,' Dr Gunaratna said. 'They are still the vanguard for global jihad, but more in an ideological manner than in conducting actions.'
