Eight quizzed over 'al-Qaida' plot
Eight men were being questioned tonight over an alleged al-Qaida plot to unleash a terrorist bombing campaign in Britain.
Detectives found more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser – the same explosive ingredient already used in terror attacks in Bali, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Africa and the United States.
It was the biggest seizure of potential bomb-making material since the IRA suspended its terror campaign in 1997.
Police and security chiefs believe a series of “spectacular” terror attacks including truck bombs could have been launched within weeks.
It could have been used to target “postcard” monuments like Downing Street and Parliament or “soft” targets like pubs, nightclubs and shopping centres.
The suspects, aged between 17 and 32, are all British citizens and Muslims of Pakistani descent, sources said.
They were held on suspicion of “being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism” in dawn raids by 700 police officers at 24 addresses across London and the Home Counties.
Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch and MI5 have been gathering intelligence on the group for months in an operation codenamed Crevis.
Police launched the raids after discovering a bomb could be made imminently and knew exactly where to find the ammonium nitrate at a storage warehouse in west London.
The fertiliser – which requires a “booster” explosive to set it off – would have been enough to cause utter devastation.
It would have had the same power as IRA bombs which exploded in 1996 at South Quay Station in Canary Wharf, London, and the Arndale Centre in Manchester but it could have been used in several smaller bombs to target densely populated areas.
Ammonium nitrate fertiliser was used to cause carnage by al-Qaida supporting terrorists in Bali in 2002 when 202 people were killed.
It was also used in bombings against British targets in Istanbul last year, the first World Trade Centre bombing in New York in 1993 and an al Qaida attack on the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998.
It was also used in the 1995 Oklahoma bombing which killed 168 people and was in a huge bomb found outside the US embassy in Karachi in June 2002.
Ammonium nitrate packed into a truck along with the plastic explosive RDX as a detonator is regarded by experts as a favourite al-Qaida tactic.
The militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, believed to have links to al Qaida, is thought to have bought 20 tons of ammonium nitrate in 2002.
The fertiliser is used by farmers in the UK on an industrial scale and is not prohibited.
Professor Paul Wilkinson, chairman of St Andrews University’s Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, said it would be available at any agricultural merchants.
“Conscientious retailers would inform the authorities if someone started buying it in large quantities,” he said.
“But it would be difficult to spot if someone bought it in smaller quantities and then started to build up a stock.”
Arms expert Mike Yardley said: “It’s the ideal explosive – simple, effective and cheap. Terrorists and militants use the ammonium nitrate because it’s incredibly stable to store.”
David Heather, head of the Agricultural Industries Confederation’s fertiliser section, said: “As with many chemicals, it can be manipulated and used for purposes which it was not intended for.”
