Blasts have 'al Qaeda hallmark'

BERLIN - Apparently co-ordinated blasts across London's transport network yesterday bear similarities to last year's Madrid bombings and suggest an attack in the style of al Qaeda, security analysts say.

Officially, there was no immediate confirmation from British authorities that they were treating the explosions as an attack by militants. London's police chief said there were about six blasts.

The use of near-simultaneous attacks to cause maximum damage and panic is a tactic frequently used by al Qaeda, from the 1998 bombing of two United States embassies in East Africa to the September 11 attacks on the US with four hijacked airliners in 2001.

Since then, the pattern has been repeated in deadly attacks attributed to al Qaeda or like-minded Islamist militants in Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Spain.

"If what we are looking at is a simultaneous bombing, and it does look like that, it would very certainly fit the classic al Qaeda methodology which centres precisely on that, multi-seated hits on transport and infrastructural targets," said Dr Shane Brighton, intelligence expert at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence.

The London blasts, at underground stations and on buses, had clear echoes of March 11, 2004, when 10 bombs hidden in sports bags exploded on four packed commuter trains in Madrid at the height of the morning rush hour, killing 191 people.

"There are lots of parallels with the Madrid blast ... We have to assume it's a terrorist attack," said German security analyst Rolf Tophoven.

"The first thing that's very obvious is the synchronised nature of the attacks, and that's pretty classic for al Qaeda or al Qaeda-related organisations," said Budapest-based security analyst Sebestyen Gorka.

"If we're talking about several attacks on one day, then there's a good likelihood we're talking about a known quantity here ... The similarities to Madrid are clear."

As with the Madrid attacks, which were three days before a general election, the London blasts appeared timed to coincide with a major political event.

They took place as leaders of the Group of Eight nations were meeting on the first full day of a summit in Scotland - an event which required its own massive security operation.

Britain has 30 years of experience combating Irish guerrilla violence but it has not as yet suffered an Islamic militant attack, although police say they have thwarted several attempts and have said repeatedly a successful strike is only a matter of time.

The backing of the war in Iraq by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Government makes Britain a likely target for Islamic militants.

- REUTERS