MI5 warns of terror plot to crash Indian plane into British city (Roundup)

LONDON - Terrorists linked to the Al Qaeda plan to hijack an Indian plane and crash it into a British city, security sources here were Sunday quoted as saying after a tip-off from the Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB).

An IB communication to the British spy agency MI5 last week warned of a suspected plot by Pakistan-based terrorist groups to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines from Delhi or Mumbai, the Sunday Times reported.

Reports of the Indian warning came as a tape purported to be from Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden Sunday claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight to Detroit.

The IB warning, made last week, appears to have been behind a decision by the British government Friday to upgrade the threat of a terrorist strike to “severe”, which rates the possibility of such an attack as “highly likely.”

The Indian tip-off came after the capture of Amjad Khwaja, a commander of the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HuJI), which is suspected to have been behind a number of terrorist attacks in India, including two bombings in Hyderabad August 2007, in which at least 42 people were killed.

The IB warning was contained in a detailed “threat assessment” sent to the MI5 following the interrogation of Khwaja, who was arrested in India Jan 18.

Although the IB does not specifically mention Britain as a target, British police sources told the paper it had “raised fears in London that a British city might be attacked” following a similar scare in 2003.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned that the threat of a terrorist strike was “very real” after an audio tape was released, in which Bin Laden appears to claim responsibility for the attempted bombing of an airliner over Detroit Dec 25, 2009.

“Let’s wait to see what he actually says; we know that the Al Qaeda senior leadership are in the badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border, probably on the Pakistan side,” Miliband said.

He said the Detroit attack was the first by the “Al Qaeda of the Arabian peninsula, which is a sub-group of the Al Qaeda franchise” and represents “an attack on the west rather than an attack within the Middle East.”

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abtulmutallab is being held by American authorities in Michigan over the abortive attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253.

In a tape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television network Sunday, a voice said to be Bin Laden’s tells US President Barack Obama: “The message I want to convey to you through the plane of the hero Omar Farouk [Abdulmutallab], reaffirms a previous message that the heroes of 9/11 conveyed to you.

“America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.”

It adds: “God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue.”

The British government’s decision Friday to upgrade its security alert followed analysis by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), a unit of the MI5.

The level was raised after Prime Minister Gordon Brown was briefed by the heads of Britain’s security services MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee.