Police in Britain are holding a senior al-Qaeda operative who was allegedly planning an attack on London's main Heathrow Airport, major newspapers reported today. In a front-page article, The Times said the man was arrested after a tip-off from Pakistani intelligence, which claimed he was getting orders directly from Osama bin Laden "as head of al-Qaeda operations in Britain." It cited unidentified Pakistani officials as saying that details about Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, were found in the computer of a suspected al-Qaeda member arrested last month in Pakistan, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan.
| And this guy was the other end of that conversation... |
According to The Times, Mr. Khan had visited Britain at least six times in recent years and had disclosed after his arrest that the chief of al-Qaeda operations in Britain went by the code name "Bilal."
"Officials insist that Mr. Khan was in 'direct contact' with Bilal over the Heathrow mission," the report said. "But only Bilal knew the identities of others in the U.K. who would be used in the Heathrow operation." The Times said its Pakistani intelligence source would not divulge details of any timetable or method of a Heathrow attack. The Daily Telegraph, in a broadly similar front-page report, said the suspect in Britain used the alias Abu Eisa al-Hindi. "He was planning some sort of attack in Britain and his capture is a good signal that intelligence obtained from al-Qaeda operatives here [in Pakistan] is producing results," the paper quoted a Pakistani official as saying. It added that police would not say whether the man was among the 12 suspects in custody after their arrest Tuesday in anti-terrorism raids in London and other parts of England. |