London al qaeda

He then went to a McDonald's before detonating his device on a bus. Rauf wrote that from the media accounts, he concluded that in the McDonald's, Hussain was checking to see if the gas had been released or not from his device.

Rauf was far from finished with his campaign to terrorize London. He already had another team preparing to attack the transport system. On July 21 four men led by Muktar Said Ibrahim, an Eritrean immigrant to the UK, attempted to detonate bombs on public transport -- and were unsuccessful only because the main charge of their explosive devices failed to detonate. Of the four bomb plotters, only Ibrahim traveled to Pakistan.

The others were recruited by Ibrahim into the plot in the UK. Rauf's document for the first time provides compelling evidence that the plot was planned by al Qaeda "central" in Pakistan. Rauf wrote he met the ringleader Ibrahim and two other members of his UK radical circle shortly after they arrived in Pakistan in early December with the intention of fighting U.

Ibrahim had attended sermons by radical cleric Abu Hamza al Masri at Finsbury Park mosque in London and had attended mock training camps and paintballing sessions organized by another radical preacher in the UK.

Rauf wrote MI5 agents had monitored them during these activities. Rauf discovered that Ibrahim's travel group had been questioned by British authorities at Heathrow airport, making them miss their flight.

Eventually they were able to travel. Rauf wrote the trio explained away the large amount of cash they were carrying by pretending that one of their party was getting married in Pakistan, and showed the security services a wedding ring as part of the ruse. According to Rauf, British intelligence had asked Pakistan's military intelligence service -- the ISI -- to keep tabs on the group, and at one stage ISI agents visited a house where they were staying.

Rauf instructed them in countersurveillance methods and told them to behave as if they were about to attend a wedding. But whereas Siddique Khan's group successfully detonated a gram hydrogen peroxide bomb when they were training in Pakistan, something went very wrong when Ibrahim's group attempted to blow up two test devices.

As he stood back a distance, Ibrahim saw his two friends killed by the explosion. His friends' "martyrdom" had a "profound effect" on Ibrahim, Rauf wrote. Haji, who had been supervising the test detonations, was able to persuade him to return to the UK to conduct "operational work. We also had to record his Wasiya martyrdom tape ," Rauf wrote. According to Rauf, Ibrahim had to leave Pakistan before he felt confident in making explosives from hydrogen peroxide because his visa was going to expire in a few days.

Once Ibrahim got back to the UK in March, Rauf wrote, "he called us by cell phone to let us know he was safe. Eventually an intermediary reported back to Rauf that Ibrahim would get back to him soon.

When the abortive attacks took place, Rauf wrote he only found out that Ibrahim was involved when his identity was revealed by the media. Ultimately, Ibrahim's cell failed to kill a single Londoner without expert guidance from thousands of miles away.

Rauf himself is thought to have been killed in a drone attack in Pakistan in November Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Front was formed to coordinate activities through a council shura led by bin Laden.

The U. Al Qaeda has also expanded by aligning itself with regional groups, including Al Qaeda in Iraq, whose leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most well-known insurgent commander in Iraq, swore allegiance to bin Laden.

Al Qaeda also relies on other Islamic militants whose talents it can exploit. Instead, they were recruited into Al Qaeda to fill a specific role. The alliance was mutually beneficial since these operatives felt that Al Qaeda was best suited to help them realize their radical ideology and schemes. Outside the circle of Al Qaeda activists and affiliated organizations there are terrorist individuals, cells and ad hoc organizations that may have little direct contact with Al Qaeda operatives but nevertheless carry out attacks in its name.

For example, based on information currently available, the attacks on resort towns in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt Taba in October and Sharm el Sheik in July were planned and carried out primarily by locally organized Bedouins with no apparent help from the outside.

Yet an organization claiming to be affiliated with Al Qaeda, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Syria and Egypt, took responsibility for the attacks, which employed tactics characteristic of Al Qaeda. More importantly, the Sinai attacks, as well as a subsequent Al Qaeda missile attack on American warships in nearby Aqaba, Jordan, have in effect opened a new front in the global Jihad movement dominated by Al Qaeda.

The extent to which it may control and direct the various affiliated, or Al Qaeda-inspired, organizations around the world is unclear. Some view Al Qaeda more as a movement than an organization, and bin Laden as a source of incitement for the international jihad movement, rather than its commander. But evidence suggests that despite official assessments by the U. Mejjati apparently also directed a May attack in Casablanca, Morocco, initially thought to be entirely the work of a local group.

He was killed in a gun battle with Saudi security in March , but speculations regarding other terrorist operations he might have put in motion abound, including a possible plan for an attack on U. Similarly, the London bombings on July 7, , and a second wave of bombs, which did not detonate, were initially thought to be the work of homegrown radicals with no substantial outside help, or at least no Al Qaeda connection.

However, evidence suggests that the London bombers were part of an international network connected to Al Qaeda operatives who were contracted by by the top Al Qaeda leadership.

Also, based on information obtained by British security agency, MI5 from a terrorist caught in Pakistan, it appears that an Al Qaeda-trained bomb-maker, Azhari bin Husin, helped make the explosives used in the London attacks. Husin, killed by Indonesian forces in November , was involved in a number of Al Qaeda related attacks around the world. The central Al Qaeda leadership, however, does not have the capability to wage this war by itself; rather, it depends on local affiliates and allies to strike at U.

This strategy includes not just terror attacks on U. After their short-term goals are realized and local leaders begin to fall, Al Qaeda seeks to establish Islamic rule in their place. Realizing that not all regimes will fall at the same time, it advocates immediately replacing fallen regimes with a religious autocracy similar to the former Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

In most cases, these governments will be formed by local Al Qaeda affiliates in conjunction with local leaders who join the Al Qaeda cause. These governments will then be used as foundations for expanding jihadi influence and rule around the region.

Ultimately, Al Qaeda hopes join all of these separate Islamic governments to resurrect the Islamic empire, known as a caliphate, that would rule all Muslim lands and fight to expand them. Al Qaeda employs a number of different terrorist tactics, including suicide bombing, car bombing, roadside bombing, hijackings and paramilitary operations against civilian and military targets.

In this type of attack, a number of suicide bombers, generally two to five, coordinate their attacks to strike a number of targets at roughly the same time. This tactic not only causes significantly more damage and casualties than a single bomb, it also creates a greater sense of panic among victims.

Al Qaeda is also adept at using the media to further its goals. Its attacks are constantly shown on news channels around the world and its taped messages are broadcast to millions of listeners. Additionally, Al Qaeda received funding from charities and many for-profit organizations and individuals have been accused of providing funds to the organization.

In the months after the September 11th terrorist attacks, the U. Other nations, too, moved to shut down sources of Al Qaeda funding or money laundering, disrupting to an unknown extent the pre-September 11 funding network.

However, Al Qaeda does not need massive amounts of money to survive. After the U. The now-dispersed leadership began relying more heavily on the Internet to communicate to its members and the public.

Soon, Al Qaeda shifted many of its activities to cyberspace. The Internet compensated for the loss of a secure base and allowed Al Qaeda terrorists to disseminate information and communicate with each other in relative safety. Alone, in your home or with a group of your brothers, you too can begin to execute the training program. The program also includes video footage of terrorist attacks.

Al Qaeda was founded in by Osama bin Laden to consolidate the international network he established during the Afghan war. Its goals were the advancement of Islamic revolutions throughout the Muslim world and repelling foreign intervention in the Middle East.

Together with Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood leader, Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden ran one of seven main militias involved in the fighting. They established military training bases in Afghanistan and founded Maktab Al Khidamat, or Services Office, a support network that provided recruits and money through worldwide centers, including in the U. Bin Laden and Azzam had different visions for what to do with the network they had established.

Bin Laden decided to found Al Qaeda, based on personal affiliations created during the fighting in Afghanistan as well as on his own international network, reputation and access to large sums of money. The following year Azzam was assassinated. After the war ended, the Afghan-Arabs, as the mostly non-Afghan volunteers who fought the Soviets came to be known, either returned to their countries of origin or joined conflicts in Somalia, the Balkans and Chechnya. Al Qaeda vociferously opposed the stationing of U.

The ultimate goal of this campaign was to depose the Saudi royal family and install an Islamic regime on the Arabian peninsula.

The Saudi regime subsequently deported bin Laden and revoked his citizenship in In bin Laden moved to Sudan, where he operated until During this period, Al Qaeda established connections with other terror organizations with the help of its Sudanese hosts and Iran.

While in Sudan, Al Qaeda was involved in several terror attacks and guerilla actions carried out by other organizations.

In May , following U. He had a trimmed beard and appeared to be sitting against a wall lined with an ornate carpet. Al-Zawahri appeared in black turban and white robes with an automatic weapon leaning against the wall beside him. Khan, 30, was a Leeds resident who died in the bombing of the London Underground train near Edgware Road. In a tape aired Aug. He presented the attacks as a result of Blair's decision to deploy troops in Iraq.

There were at least two purported claims of responsibility on Islamic Web sites in the week following the July 7 attack.