London bomber called accomplices

One of the 7 July London bombers rang his fellow suicide attackers before his device went off, the BBC has learned.

Hasib Hussain, 18, called his three accomplices on his mobile phone before killing 13 people on the No 30 bus. But Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Germaine Lindsay, 19, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, had already killed themselves and 39 passengers on three Tube trains.

No-one has been charged over the 7 July bombings. The main suspects in the 21 July failed attacks are all in custody.

Mastermind theories

Three bombs exploded on the London Underground at around 0850 BST on 7 July, but Hasib Hussain did not detonate his device until 0947 BST. Scotland Yard has confirmed to BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford that, at some point in the intervening hour, Hussain tried to contact his accomplices.

He did not try to contact anyone else, which suggests there was no "mastermind" or that he did not want to implicate them, said Daniel Sandford.

The most likely explanation was that he had tried to board the Northern Line, but it was closed, so when things started to go wrong he tried to phone his co-conspirators, he added.

Terrorism expert Michael Clarke, of King's College, said the calls showed Hussain was in a panic and probably rang his accomplices to make sure their bombs had exploded.

Charged

The 7 July bomb attacks killed 52 bus and Tube passengers and injured a further 700 people. On 21 July no-one was killed when bombs on three Tube trains and a bus failed to detonate.

So far 14 people have been charged over the 21 July attempted attacks, including three of the suspected bombers.

A fourth bomb suspect, Hussain Osman, 27, is awaiting extradition from Italy. BBC NEWS

London bombers triggered blasts by hand: paper

Wed Aug 24, 2005 3:49 AM BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Four suicide bombers who killed 52 people in attacks on London's transport network on July 7 triggered the blasts by hand rather than by mobile phones as previously suggested, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Guardian, citing unidentified senior police and anti-terrorism sources for its information, said the four British Muslims who blew themselves up on three trains and a bus used "button-like" devices to set off the bombs.

"There were no mobile phone timers on (July 7)," the Guardian quoted one source as saying. "They were manually activated."

The newspaper said the discovery was a breakthrough in the investigation into the bombings. Police declined to comment on the report. "We are not prepared to discuss this as it forms part of the investigation," said a police spokeswoman.

Earlier this month, New York's police chief Raymond Kelly said three of the bombs were probably detonated by mobile phones. Spanish investigators have said mobile phones were used to trigger the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 that killed 191 people.

The Guardian said police still had the remains of the four bombers and would try to reassemble the body parts in a search for clues.

A second wave of bombings in London in July failed and police say have arrested all the suspects involved. - reuters.co.uk/

Bomber may have lost nerve first time

LONDON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- British police now think a bomber in the July 7 London subway bomb attacks may have lost his nerve the first time around before blowing himself up on a bus.

The new theory is that 18-year-old Hasib Hussain decided not to go through with his mission to blow himself up on a tube train, the Times of London reported.

He then took refuge at McDonald's in King's Cross and tried to contact his fellow bombers to see if they too had failed to go through with their pact, the report said.

But when Hussain received no replies, he realized he was completely alone, the report said. He then steeled himself to go through with his attack. But as there was no possibility of boarding a train, Hussain got on a diverted bus packed with commuters and detonated his bomb, killing 13 people.

The theory is based on revelations there were no problems on the north-bound section of the train line, which Hussain had intended to attack to complete a "burning cross" of bombs in the heart of London.

Hussain's frantic last messages are seen as vivid proof the British-born Muslim extremists intended to die in the attacks, the Times said. United Press International via science daily!

Up to 100 members of the Church of Scientology in garish yellow jackets joined the relief operation as sandwiches and bottles of water were rushed through the police cordons. As the mobile phone networks collapsed under the weight of calls people queued outside phone boxes to call relatives.

- Sunday July 10, 2005 - The Observer "The Horror"

By Jeff Edwards - THE London bombers may have been duped into killing themselves so their secrets stayed hidden.

Police and MI5 are probing if the four men were told by their al-Qaeda controller they had time to escape after setting off timers. Instead, the devices exploded immediately. A security source said: "If the bombers lived and were caught they'd probably have cracked. Would their masters have allowed that to happen? We think not."

The evidence is compelling: The terrorists bought return rail tickets, and pay and display car park tickets, before boarding _ a train at Luton for London. None of the men was heard to cry "Allah Akhbar!" - "God is great" - usually screamed by suicide bombers as they detonate their bomb.