Doctors 'planned bombing campaign to punish Britain'

Two muslim doctors motivated by a desire to punish Britain for its actions abroad plotted a nationwide car bombing campaign to commit "wholesale" murder which ended in a desperate suicide attack on a busy airport, a court heard yesterday.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Mohammed Asha, 28, who worked in NHS hospitals, were said to have become key figures in a terrorist cell that tried to destroy a nightclub in London's West End in June last year. The attack on the Tiger Tiger club on Haymarket, near Piccadilly, using two Mercedes saloon cars packed with metal gas canisters, cans of petrol and nails, failed because triggers rigged to mobile phones inside the vehicles did not ignite the improvised "fuel-air" devices, the court heard.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court heard it was "no more than good fortune" that the car bombs driven into London by Dr Abdulla and another co-conspirator, Kafeel Ahmed, from their base in Glasgow did not kill scores of the 500 revellers inside the nightclub. Police found several "missed call" messages on each of the rigged mobile phones, indicating repeated attempts to set off the devices, the court heard.

The attack was allegedly to be the first in a series of remotely triggered bombings using five cars, designed to spread panic and "punish" the British people for the UK's involvement in what they saw as the persecution of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, for the prosecution, said: "Their plan was to carry out a series of attacks on the public using bombs concealed in vehicles. No warnings were to be given and the cars were to be positioned in busy urban areas. These men were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale. By the carrying out of a series of explosions, with no warning as to where the next strike would occur, the terrorists knew the public would be gripped by fear."

Maximum casualties were intended from the attack because, as well as the Mercedes parked by Dr Abdulla outside the club, a second Mercedes was left by Mr Ahmed on a side street where it was likely that those fleeing the first blast would have been shepherded, the court heard.

The jury was told that the failure of the bombing on 29 June led to a change in tactics by Dr Abdulla and Mr Ahmed, who returned to Scotland via a meeting with Dr Asha in Stoke, knowing it was only a matter of hours before counter-terrorism officers traced them using evidence left in the cars. Dr Abdulla, who was working at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, and Mr Ahmed staged a suicide assault on Glasgow Airport less than 48 hours later, the court heard.

Mr Ahmed, 28, an Indian-born mechanical engineer, drove a Jeep into the entrance of the terminal with Dr Abdulla, who was born in Britain but raised in Iraq, sitting in the passenger seat. Dr Asha, a Jordanian neurologist who was based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, is alleged to have provided Dr Abdulla with "guidance and support", including money to help buy the five cars.

Dr Abdulla and Mr Ahmed, who had turned the Jeep into a "mobile incendiary bomb" with gas canisters, intended to take their own lives by throwing petrol to cause a massive explosion, the court heard. Mr Ahmed, who set himself on fire, died of his injuries two days after the attack.

The conspiracy is alleged to have begun in 2004 and 2005 when the three men were all studying in Cambridge. Mr Laidlaw said it was during this time that Dr Abdulla and Dr Asha turned towards extremism. "Material found in their possession after their arrests reveals that both men hold or adhere to extreme Islamic beliefs and that both share, despite their obligations to save life and avert suffering, the same extreme religious and murderous ideology as has inspired other terrorists who have struck at or threatened this country in recent years," said the prosecutor.

Detailed planning for the "spectacular" was alleged to have begun early in 2007 with regular meetings and phone calls between Dr Abdulla and Dr Asha, and instant messenger online conversations between Dr Abdulla and Mr Ahmed, who had returned to his native Bangalore because of a family illness and would only return to Britain for the final stages of the conspiracy. The court heard that after carrying out a reconnaissance visit to London in May 2007, Dr Abdulla and Mr Ahmed used a rented house in Paisley as a bomb factory to prepare their devices.

The two men were careful not to raise suspicions, buying each patio gas canister separately and using false names to purchase the cars – three Mercedes saloons, a BMW and a Jeep – in northern England and Scotland before assembling the bombs in a garage.

Although Dr Asha was not directly involved in any of the buying or assembly of the devices, prosecutors allege he was at the core of the conspiracy, providing £1,300 to buy the cars and receiving calls from Dr Abdulla during the preparation of the attacks. Mr Laidlaw said: "Asha appears to have provided guidance and support to Abdulla – that support may have involved spiritual and ideological guidance because it is clear from Abdulla's interviews he held Asha in very high esteem." Dr Abdulla and Dr Asha deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.

Dr Abdulla, who admits preparing and attempting to detonate the car bombs, claims they were intended only to damage property and not take lives.

The case continues.

Failure to detonate: The Tiger Tiger bombs

* Each of the Mercedes cars was filled with liquid petroleum gas (LPG), patio heater canisters and cans of petrol and nails.

* The alleged bombers opened the canister valves and poured petrol inside the car before retreating to trigger an explosion using a mobile phone.

* The detonation was designed to use a trigger rigged with another mobile phone inside the cars.

* A circuit board attached to the phones' "buzzer" unit would connect when the phone was rung and send a current to an exposed light bulb filament encased with match heads.

* The heat from the filament was supposed to light the matches, causing a flame to ignite the gas-filled car.

* Although one trigger worked, the court heard that the mixture of gas and air had become too "rich", and there was not enough oxygen to cause the explosion.