Bomb gang hunt continues

13 April 2012

Detectives were today hoping fresh evidence prompted by a CCTV image of teenage suicide bomber Hasib Hussain will help build a clearer picture of the London terror attacks.

Hussain, 18, is pictured setting off from Luton station on his mission with a military-style rucksack which, according to reports, contained an acetone peroxide bomb made from readily available household chemicals.

As police confirmed that the death toll in the attacks had risen to 54, new details emerged about Hussain's fourth accomplice.

The man is named in reports as Lindsay Jamal, although he is said to have changed his name when he converted to Islam and the exact spelling of his name is not clear.

Detectives believe they have identified him and have evidence he was responsible for the deadliest bomb, which claimed 26 lives on the Piccadilly line between King's Cross and Russell Square.

They have not confirmed his name publicly, but a man said to be the bomber is pictured today in the Daily Mail with his wife and baby.

The Mail reported that Jamal was 19-years-old and originally from Jamaica, and was married to Samantha Lewthwaite, 21, also an Islamic convert who is said to be eight months pregnant with their second child.

The couple lived at the property in Aylesbury, Bucks, which was raided by police on Wednesday night.

They reportedly met in Luton, where two cars linked to the bombings were seized on Tuesday, and from where all four bombers set off on their mission on Thursday morning last week.

The death toll rose to 54 last night after a man died in hospital.

He had been a passenger on the number 30 bus when Hussain detonated his bomb as it pulled into Tavistock Square.

He killed at least 14 innocent victims in his suicide mission, two-and-a-half hours after he was filmed in Luton at 7.20am.

Dressed casually in a dark anorak-style jacket and dark trousers, he looked like thousands of other young tourists heading for the capital.

Hussain, who had travelled to Luton by car from his home in West Yorkshire, boarded a Thameslink train to King's Cross with his three fellow suicide bombers.

The other three simultaneously detonated their devices on London Underground trains at 8.50am, but Hussain did not blow himself up on the bus until 9.47am.

Detectives released the CCTV footage of him at Luton as part of a public appeal to find out what he was doing in the intervening 57 minutes.

Anti-terrorist branch chief Peter Clarke said yesterday there were probably in the region of 80 people on the number 30 bus when the explosion occurred and said detectives planned to speak to all of them.

He also publicly named two of the bombers for the first time - Hussain, who was from Holbeck in Leeds, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, from Beeston, Leeds, who blew himself up on a train near Aldgate.

Documents belonging to the Edgware Road bomber had been found in the wreckage there but there was no conclusive forensic evidence of his identity, Mr Clarke said.

However, detectives strongly believe he was Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Army bomb disposal experts were today continuing to examine a former community centre in the Beeston area of Leeds.

The building, in Lodge Lane, is near the home of Tanweer and a robot is being used inside a cordon to assist searches.

Neighbours of the couple in Aylesbury said they rented the property.

Joao Lima, 55, who lives two doors down from the house being searched, said: "There is a European lady living at the house. She dresses in Islamic clothes."

A 32-year-old woman, living next door, said: "They are a couple, a black man and a woman in her 20s who has converted to Islam. They have a little boy who's about 18 months old."

"They moved into the house about six months ago. They were just about to renew the contract, I think."

Her partner, a 39-year-old man, said: "I have not seen him for well over a week but I saw her the other day.

"There has been nothing to suggest anything odd was happening at their house. I'm still in shock really."

Detectives said one theory about the bombings is that an experienced foreign terrorist may have arrived in Britain last month and left the country just days before the attacks.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said: "We have to find who planned it. That is the absolute focus of the current investigation."

He said the bombers may have been trained or guided by Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terror network.

"Al Qaida is not an organisation, al-Qaida is a way of working, but this has the hallmark of that approach," he said.

"Al Qaida clearly has the ability to provide training... to provide expertise... and I think that is what has occurred here."

Anti-terrorist detectives are continuing to question a 29-year-old man at Paddington Green police station. He was arrested in Leeds on Tuesday.

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