Sweden suicide bomber studied in British university

LONDON - The suicide bomber who blew himself up in a terror attack in Sweden Saturday was based in Britain and studied sports therapy at Bedford University, a media report said Monday.

Police were Monday searching the house where Iraqi national Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly lived with his wife and three children in Luton, Bedfordshire.

Neighbours said he disappeared from the house about two weeks ago. Abdulwahab, 29, a Sunni Muslim, had lived there for about eight months. His wife Mona, 28, is a Swedish citizen reportedly of Arab origin, and they have two daughters, aged four and two.

But he was reportedly in Luton - a town with a large Muslim population - for up to six years.

British security officials said he studied sports therapy at Bedford University between 2001 and 2004, The Sun reported.

Abdulwahab died instantly when he triggered his suicide bomb backpack among crowds of Christmas shoppers in Stockholm Saturday. No one else was killed but two people were injured.

A car used in the attack was registered in his name. He blew up the vehicle, packed with gas canisters, in Stockholm’s Drottinggatan district.

Abdulwahab was allegedly trying to lure crowds to the blast site. He walked 200 metres from the wreckage and detonated his backpack containing six pipe bombs.

He had earlier reportedly sent an email to Swedish police warning of deadly attacks in revenge for the country sending troops to Afghanistan.

Investigators say Abdulwahab fled from Iraq in 1992 after the first Gulf War and lived in Sweden before moving to Britain.

Memorial pages have appeared on Facebook referring to the terrorist as “our brother and friend”.

Abdulwahab, who married in 2004, had been seeking a second bride on websites. He said he was looking for a woman with fundamentalist Islamic views who was striving to achieve a place in Paradise.