Two men, one trail of terror

Two Iraqi doctors arrested as they tried to attack Glasgow airport are now believed to have been responsible for leaving two vehicles packed with explosives in London two days before.

Bilal Abdulla and Khalid Ahmed, allegedly part of a secret cell of medics involved in terrorism, are said to have driven two Mercedes saloon " bomb cars" from Glasgow to London and positioned them to be blown up in the city centre.

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The two men, employed by the National Health Service at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, then travelled back to Glasgow, separately, by public transport and rammed another "bomb car", a Jeep, as the police and security service closed in on them.

Details of the plans of attack, one of the most devastating threatened on the British mainland, were revealed as the police and the security service stated that they had arrested all the key players involved in the plot.

Shiraz Maher, a friend of Bilal Abdulla and a former member of controversial Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahir, told Newsnight: "He supported the insurgency in Iraq. He actively cheered the deaths of British and American troops in Iraq. One of his best friends had been killed by a Shia militia tank while he was at medical school. He was clearly very angry about what was happening. But to say it was just all about Iraq or foreign policy is mistaken. It feeds off a much wider ideological infrastructure."

Yesterday a British cleric in Iraq said that he had received a warning from an al-Qa'ida leader in Syria of a plan to target Britain. In an apparent reference to the doctors involved in the attacks, Canon Andrew White said the man told him that "the people who cure you will kill you".

In a day of fast-moving developments, yet another doctor, 27-year-old Muhammad Haneef, became the eighth person to be arrested in connection with the British attacks ­ and the first one to be arrested abroad ­ when he was held in Australia. Another man described as one of his friends, Mohammed Asif Ali, with links to Cheshire, also a doctor, was questioned by Australian police but not formally arrested.

Those in custody, six of them doctors or medical students, and a laboratory technician, the wife of one of the doctors, are employed by the National Health Service. The eighth person arrested is a former NHS employee who now works as a doctor in Australia.

However, the police believe Dr Abdulla and Dr Ahmed were the most active members of the cell and those tasked with carrying out the attacks. The two men lived what was considered uneventful and normal lives in Glasgow and Dr Abdulla made efforts to fit into the local environment attending Glasgow Rangers football matches. According to the security agencies the two men arrived in London last week driving the two Mercedes saloons. Dr Abdulla is said to have been subsequently identified by an employee of an establishment in Haymarket, where the two cars were parked. Unconfirmed reports say that he was also photographed by a CCTV camera in the area.

The two men are said to have returned to Glasgow before the discovery by police of the second Mercedes saloon.

Dr Abdulla and Dr Ahmed, it is claimed, had been planning to carry out an attack on Glasgow. Realising that the police were in the process of tracking them down, they decided to bring it forward. It is believed that having failed to carry out explosions remotely in London they decided to use " manual" methods in Glasgow, ramming the vehicle, a green Jeep Cherokee, into a terminal.

The attack took place at 3.16pm. It has since emerged how close the police were to arresting them. At 2.45pm, the Paisley Cab Company, regularly used by the two doctors, was visited by officers. They were told that Dr Abdulla had made at least one journey to the airport by taxi, on 13 June, but had not boarded a flight. The jeep used in the airport assault, registration number L808 RDT, was bought three days later, on 16 June, for £1,720, reportedly in Merseyside.

Police have been told that the 4x4 was subsequently parked for several weeks at Wordsworth Street in Toxteth, Liverpool, almost equidistant from two locations raided by the police at the weekend. Sabeel Ahmed, a doctor, was arrested, after being disabled with a Taser stun gun by police in Liverpool. According to police sources, one of the targets of the operation was Dr Haneef, who was apprehended in Brisbane yesterday.

Two men, of Asian origin, were questioned by police in Blackburn after they were arrested following a reported delivery of about 10 large gas canisters. Lancashire Constabulary said it was too early to confirm whether the arrests were linked to the Glasgow and London incidents.

The families of Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, and his wife, Marwa Danna, 27, a laboratory researcher, who were arrested on the M6 motorway, continued to protest his innocence yesterday.

Mrs Asha's father, Yunis Danna, denied she had links to terrorism and said she was not an extremist. He said: "Marwa is a very educated person and she read many British novels to know England better, a country she liked so much. I'm so worried about Marwa, Mohammed and my grandson, Anas. I'm desperate for information."

The security service and the police reiterated yesterday that they had no prior intelligence on the bomb plots. However, Professor Anthony Glees, of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security, told Channel 4 News yesterday evening that he understood that at least one of the men arrested was known to the police and MI5 before the attacks.

He said: "My understanding is at least one of these people was on the list of 1,600 identified people. This list was referred to by Eliza Manningham-Buller [the former MI5 director general] last autumn."

Dr Hamish Meldrum, of the British Medical Association, said: "Like others we are shocked to hear of the attempted bombings. Overseas doctors have made an invaluable contribution to the NHS over the years and it would be dreadful if the trust that exists between patients and doctors was harmed by these events."

Dr Haneef, an Indian who trained in Bangalore, had worked at the North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust at Halton Hospital until 2005. He joined the Gold Coast Hospital, in Queensland, in September arriving, said the state premier, Peter Beattie, with " excellent references". He was detained under anti-terrorism laws as he tried to board a flight to India as a result of a mobile telephone call between one of the suspects arrested in the UK.

THE SUSPECTS

Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha, 27

Born: Saudi Arabia

Arrested: M6 near Sandbach Services, 30 June.

Graduated from Jordan University's medical school in 2004 and arrived in Britain in the same year to undertake a postgraduate qualification at Birmingham University. He joined North Staffordshire Hospital 12 months ago and was planning to return to Jordan - a flight was planned for 12 July.

Marwa Danna, 27

Born: Jordan

Arrested: M6 near Sandbach services, 30 June.

Thought to have been a lab technician at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital where Mohammed Asha, her husband, had worked. She moved to Britain with him soon after their marriage. Her husband indicated to the family from whom he rented a house in Newcastle-under-Lyme that she had suffered racist abuse in Shropshire. Arrested with him.

Medical Student, 28

Born: Saudi Arabia

Arrested: Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley 2 July.

The suspect had completed his training last month at the hospital and been told he could look for a qualified post. He was arrested in a joint operation by officers from Strathclyde Special Branch and Scotland Yard's Counter-Terrorism command. He was in a room in an accommodation block used for students and doctors on night shifts.

Muhammad Haneef, 27

Born: India

Arrested: Brisbane, 2 July.

After completing medical studies in Bangalore in 2002, he worked at North Cheshire NHS Trust at Halton Hospital, Runcorn, until 2005. Moved to Gold Coast Hospital, Queensland, last September. Regarded as a "model citizen " with "excellent references". He had not resigned before heading for Brisbane airport to fly to India. Arrested over a phone call to a suspect in Britain.

Medical Student, 25

Born: Saudi Arabia

Arrested: the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, 2 July.

The unnamed suspect was seized by armed police in an accommodation block set apart from the main hospital building and used to house staff. It is thought the man was part of a regular intake of graduate students at the hospital, one of the biggest in the Glasgow and Clyde region.

Khalid Ahmed

Born: Iraq

Arrested: Glasgow airport, 30 June.

Seen dousing himself in petrol after jumping from the Jeep that smashed into Glasgow airport. Believed to have shared a house in Renfrewshire with Dr Abdullah. It is now believed that he was in Piccadilly, London, on the night of the abortive nightclub plot. He remains in a critical condition in Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley.

Sabeel Ahmed, 26

Born: India

Arrested: Liverpool, 1 July.

Like Dr Haneef, worked for North Cheshire NHS Trust, at Halton and Warrington, and is thought to have lived at Hatherley Street, Toxteth. Neighbours say he was married. It appears he had no involvement in local mosques. He lived six doors from the largest mosque in Liverpool - al-Rahma - but worshippers do not know him.

Bilal Talal Abdul Samad Abdulla, 27

Born: Iraq

Arrested: Glasgow airport 30 June.

Passenger in the Jeep that smashed into Glasgow airport on Saturday. Worked as a locum house officer at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. Qualified from Baghdad University in 2004 and was granted a licence to practice in the UK in August. Rented a house in the nearby village of Houston.