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June 29, 2007

UK: Islamist Car Bomb Discovered In London?

A car bomb was defused in the early hours of Friday morning. A silver-green Mercedes was discovered outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in the Haymarket, in the theater district of London's West End, shortly after 1 am (British Summer Time). An ambulance had been called to the nightclub to deal with a person who had been taken ill, and the paramedics noticed that smoke or vapor was rising from the foot well inside the vehicle. Police were called and the car was taken away and defused.

The vehicle was found to have contained propane gas canisters, 60 liters of gasoline and a quantity of nails. Additionally a detonator was discovered, which appears to have been a remote-activated device, which could have been triggered by mobile phone.

A second vehicle, a blue Mercedes, was found parked illegally in the West End at the same time, and was towed to an underground car park in Park Lane at Hyde Park, arriving at 3.15 am local time. Because the vehicle smelled strongly of gasoline, it was not taken inside the car park. After a press conference by the police at midday, concerning the Haymarket car bomb, the authorities at the car park contacted the police. Park Lane was closed off to traffic until after 6.45 pm, causing traffic chaos elsewhere in London.

At the midday press conference, Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit, refused to be drawn on the identity of those who planned the foiled attack. However, he did mention that Islamist terrorist Dhiren Barot had also planned a terror attack employing a vehicle filled with gas canisters. Barot, an Al Qaeda member, was jailed for life on November 7, 2006. Clarke mentioned the police code-name for Barot's surveillance, "Operation Rhyme". Barot's seven accomplices were jailed on June 15. At their trial at Woolwich Crown Court the judge, Mr Justice Butterfield, had said that he had "suspicions" that some of the men may have recruited others to the cell.

Clarke said: "There was no intelligence whatsoever that we were going to be attacked in this way... It is obvious that if the device had detonated, there could have been significant injury or loss of life. We are doing absolutely everything we can in our power to keep the public safe. The threat from terrorism is real and is here. Life must go on but we must all stay alert to the threat as we go on with our lives."

Clarke said it was too early to say if the nightclub Tiger Tiger was the intended target. However, he did make mention of an earlier plot (Operation Crevice) which had involved attacking a night club - the Ministry of Sound with explosives.

There was a third vehicle located at Fleet Street which initially was thought to be a car bomb, and for a few hours this region was closed off to the public. It appears now that the Fleet Street incident was a false alarm.

The location of Haymarket, less than a mile from Downing Street, led to increased security around Westminster. Gordon Brown, who had served only two days as Britain's new Prime Minister, attended a meeting with other ministers this morning, where they were briefed by COBRA, the civil contingencies committee, which gets its name from "Cabinet Office Briefing Room A". Brown stated: "I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days."

Brown's newly appointed Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said: "We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism."

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur of the Metropolitan Police said that plans for public events this weekend were under review. An eyewitness from the Tiger Tiger club said that the silver Mercedes was parked at an angle outside the front door of the night club, with its doors open and headlights on.

ITV Evening News said that there were reports that a well-dressed black man had been seen running from the vehicle. Earlier TV news reports had mentioned that the silver Mercedes had been seen driving erratically, bumping into garbage bins, before being abandoned outside the nightclub.

In New York City, security has been stepped up as a precautionary measure, with extra police patrlos around Times Square and the transport system. The Secretary of US Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, released a statement, in which he asserted that US officials are monitoring the situation in London, but have not seen anything to link the incident in Britain to any threat to the United States.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 29, 2007 3:05 PM

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