British police identifies London bombings mastermind: Times

* Suicide bombers responsible for attacks, says London police chief

LONDON: British police have identified the man thought to be the mastermind behind last week’s bombings in London, reported The Times newspaper on Thursday.

The paper said the British-born man in his 30s, of Pakistani origin, arrived at a British port last month and left the country the day before Thursday’s attacks. Security sources believe the mastermind was involved in previous terror operations and has links with followers of Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda extremist group in the US, said the paper. He is thought to have visited the bombers in their home city of Leeds and identified targets on the London Underground rail subway system, the paper added.

According to The Times newspaper, police are also seeking a possible fifth member of the bombers’ terror cell, who was also seen at Luton station from where the attackers travelled into the capital. The man, also believed to be of Pakistani origin, could still be at large in London, said the paper.

Police additionally want to interview an Egyptian-born university lecturer who was teaching in Leeds until a few weeks ago. According to The Sun newspaper, Magdi El-Nashar (33) was studying for a biochemistry doctorate at Leeds University and disappeared just before the attacks, it is thought to Egypt. At least two of the bombers had links to his rented flat, which is one of six addresses in and around Leeds raided by police on Tuesday morning, the report added.

Police have concluded that suicide bombers carried out the attacks, said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair.

Blair said police believe “that we know who the four people carrying the bombs were ... and we believe they are all dead.” He added, “We are as certain as we can be that four people were killed and they were the four people carrying bombs.” News reports have quoted police sources as saying that three of the bombers were Britons of Pakistani descent.

On Thursday, Sky News and the BBC quoted police sources as saying they believed the fourth bomber was a British resident who was born in Jamaica.

Meanwhile in Islamabad, a top Pakistani security official said that intelligence services were investigating possible links between the London bombers and any extremist groups here. agencies

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