Glasgow bombing prosecutors claim two doctors at centre of UK terror campaign

TWO doctors filled with extremist zeal used a quiet Scottish village as a base to unleash a terror campaign on Glasgow and London, a court heard yesterday.

Dr Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Dr Mohammed Asha, 28, stand accused of being part of a small terrorist cell of Islamic extremists intent on murdering hundreds of innocent people, on what was described as an "indiscriminate and a wholesale scale".

Both men, who worked in the NHS while plotting their attacks, sought international public attention with the intended wave of car bombings across Britain last summer, it is claimed.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London were told that they orchestrated "revengeful attacks" from a "bomb factory" in a quiet commuter village near Glasgow.

However, their car bombs were thwarted by technical failures.

It was "simply luck that protected the people of Scotland", the court heard, with neither the police or the intelligence services observing their plot.

The prosecutor, Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, told the court the men were motivated by revenge for how they believed Britain was treating Muslims in conflicts in countries like Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. The prosecution said Abdulla, an Iraqi citizen born in the UK described as the "central figure" in the terrorist cell, was found in a burning car filled with explosives which rammed into the main terminal building of Glasgow Airport in June last year.

Abdulla, a junior house officer at the Royal Alexandra hospital in Paisley, and Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian national who died as a result of burn injuries sustained in the Glasgow attack, are also said to have driven two Mercedes cars laden with gas canisters, containers full of petrol, and large quantities of nails from Scotland to the west end of London.

One car was left outside Tiger Tiger nightclub, the other in nearby Cockspur Street next to a night bus stop and possibly in the path of those fleeing the nightclub.

Abdulla allegedly built the bombs and attacked the targets with Ahmed, while Asha, a senior house officer at the neurology department of the University of North Staffordshire, played a key role behind the scenes, advising and supporting the plot.

Mr Laidlaw 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. In short, these men were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and a wholesale scale.

"By carrying out a series of explosions, with no warning as to where the next strike would occur, the terrorists knew perfectly well the public would be gripped by fear."

Mr Laidlaw said the "extraordinary" aspect about the case is the fact both men were doctors, who sought and obtained work in British hospitals to continue their training. Material found in their possession after their arrests, he added, revealed they both hold or adhere to "extreme Islamic belief and that both share, despite their professions and their obligations to save life and avert suffering, the same religious and murderous ideology as has inspired other terrorists who have struck at or threatened this country in recent years".

"Who would have suspected two doctors to have been involved in such planning?" Mr Laidlaw asked the court.

The court heard the plotters had access to extra bomb materials and at least two more vehicles for further attacks.

On the opening day of prosecution at the trial before Mr Justice Mackay, the court heard that planning for the attacks was begun in earnest around six months before their execution.

Mr Laidlaw described how the men had received finances from Asha, and bought cars in Glasgow, Cheshire, Liverpool, and Sheffield, using the Autotrader magazine. All were paid for in cash and using false names. The metallic green Jeep Cherokee used to crash into the airport was bought in Hartlepool a fortnight before the attack.

The court also heard the men had bought some of the components for the bombs, including propane canisters, wire rope and nails from B&Q stores in Glasgow and northern England.

It was claimed Abdulla and Ahmed filled jerry cans with petrol at several filling stations, and ordered electrical components online to be delivered to their base at Houston, Renfrewshire, and bought two 25-litre water carriers, oil, butane canisters, and batteries, from the Halfords stores at Hermiston Gait in Edinburgh, Clydebank, Bishopbriggs, and Dunfermline.

Abdulla and Ahmed also bought duvets and pillows from the Tesco store in Kilbirnie, the court was told. They were used to cover the gas canisters on the journey to London.

Mr Laidlaw said a badly burnt laptop recovered from the Jeep had been examined by computer experts, who found that Abdulla and Ahmed appeared to have used it to carry out research, with internet search engine queries including phrases such as ">why+petrol+ does+not+burn" and visits to the Calor Gas website.

The court heard how Abdulla, who was living in hospital accommodation, had searched for a suitable property in Scotland to use for a "bomb factory", in which to work on the design for the explosives, before constructing the electrical circuits and initiation devices.

He had first viewed a house at 17 Spallander Road in Troon, before settling on a rented residence in 6 Neuk Crescent in Houston.

Abdulla secured the property on 28 April last year, moving in the same day.

Ahmed, who had spent several months in India before the attacks, returned to the UK on 5 May and moved into Neuk Crescent with Abdulla.

In May of last year, Mr Laidlaw said, the bombers carried out reconnaissance in London, visiting the west end, the City, and the area around the Old Bailey.

In preparation, the defendants bought a satellite navigation device and video camera from Glasgow Currys stores. They bought the items on different days, and in different stores. CCTV images showed the men travelling around London on 20 May in a hired silver Vauxhall Astra.

The attempted London attack took place on 29 June last year. The day before, two old Mercedes packed with gas canisters, petrol, and nails were driven from Scotland to London. Shortly after midnight they were left in the west end.

One car, a green G registration vehicle, driven by Abdulla, who was on holiday from the hospital, was parked on the Haymarket, near Piccadilly Circus, outside the Tiger Tiger club, which had around 500 people inside it at the time.

The second car, a blue L registration Mercedes, was parked in Cockspur Street.

Having turned the gas canisters on and sprinkled petrol around the interior of the cars, the bombers retreated a safe distance, Mr Laidlaw added.

The devices were to be detonated by making a call to one of two phones in each car – in case one failed.

But they failed to detonate because of pungent petrol fumes, meaning there was not enough oxygen inside the cars for the petrol and gas to ignite.

"The repeated attempts to detonate the vehicles failed but that was not through any lack of effort by the bombers. It was no more than good fortune nobody died," said Mr Laidlaw.

After fleeing central London, Abdulla and Ahmed spent the night in a hotel in Forest Gate before travelling to Scotland. As a result of the failed explosions the two men knew the police and intelligence services would "be quickly after them," and decided on a "dramatic change" of plan, deciding to carry out a suicide attack using a jeep which they would career into the airport terminal at Glasgow. "There was no change in the ultimate purpose which was to kill and maim," he said. The attack on 30 June took place on the busiest day of the year at the terminal.

The jeep, packed with gas canisters and petrol and described as a "mobile incendiary bomb", was driven into the doors of the terminal, before Abdulla and Ahmed threw petrol bombs. Abdulla, Mr Laidlaw said, "sprayed petrol around inside the vehicle in an obvious attempt to detonate the vehicle with the intent that he should be killed but also that those in the vicinity of the jeep should also lose their lives in the explosion".

But the vehicle became trapped in the doorway and did not explode. Abdulla, Mr Laidlaw said, was arrested "standing by the flaming vehicle". Ahmed died in hospital four weeks later.

Mr Laidlaw said Abdulla does not dispute he was planning a bombing campaign, but said his defence was that he did not intend to endanger the lives of members of the public.

That defence, Mr Laidlaw said, was "ludicrous" given the lack of warnings given, attempts to detonate the devices, and his extremist ideas. "This was a man determined on committing murder," he said.

Asha's role, Mr Laidlaw said, was "less obvious and visible", but he had visited Abdulla at "every material stage during the preparation for and the carrying out of these attacks". Asha "provided guidance and support" to Abdulla, "support that may have involved spiritual and ideological guidance".

Abdulla and Asha deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.

The trial continues.

Garage was 'bomb factory'
PLANNING for the London and Glasgow attacks began in earnest when the terrorists started looking for a suitable house to use as a bomb factory, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Internet conversations between Bilal Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed from March last year read to the jury made it clear their main concern was the property should have a garage. The prosecution alleged this was because the men were intent on making car bombs.

One house was rejected because it had no garage, while Ahmed turned down another in Troon, Ayrshire, after learning the road was "kinda posh", the jury was told. They finally agreed on 6 Neuk Crescent in Houston, where neighbours noticed the men came and went at unusual hours and that all but one of the blinds and curtains were kept permanently closed.

Soon after the men moved in, they covered the inside of the garage window, the court heard. Noises were heard as if the pair were carrying out work. Neighbours said the garage's front door was never open, the men always entering by a side door.

The engineering student from a medical family

KAFEEL Ahmed died from burns four weeks after a Jeep laden with petrol and gas canisters was driven into the terminal building at Glasgow Airport.

Ahmed, 28, was born in Bangalore, India, to a medical family. He studied mechanical engineering in India before attending Queen's University in Belfast to read for a masters in aeronautical engineering.

He then started a three-year doctorate at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, but returned to India in June 2005 because of a family illness.

Ahmed met the two defendants in Cambridge while living at a property owned by a charity called The Islamic Academy.


Gifted child who won a top scholarship
MOHAMMED Asha is a Jordanian who was born in Saudi Arabia on 16 September, 1980.

He was a gifted child and won a scholarship to read medicine at the University of Amman in Jordan. He trained at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge in 2003, during which time he apparently met Bilal Abdulla, Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed.

After graduating in Jordan in 2004, he trained at the Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli, Wales. He then joined the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in August 2005. At the time of the attacks in June last year he was working as a senior house officer in the neurology department at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. He is described as a strictly observant Muslim and was considered to be an extremely talented doctor. He is married with a two-year-old child, called Anas.

At the time of his arrest last year, he was living in Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.

Asha had been due to go on holiday in Jordan in July last year, before he took up his next post at the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry.

British-born but Baghdad educated
BILAL Abdulla was born on 24 August, 1979, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where his father was also a doctor, although he is an Iraqi citizen and was educated in Baghdad.

He graduated in medicine from the University of Baghdad in 2004. He then returned to the UK to study for exams that would enable him to continue his training and work in this country. Abdulla studied in Cambridge and was living near where Kafeel Ahmed was also staying at the time.

After visiting Iraq between May and July 2006, Abdulla was given limited registration to practise in the UK and joined the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley as a locum junior house officer.

The prosecution suggested that the events in Iraq at this time provided the "principal motivation" for him becoming involved in alleged terrorist attacks in the UK.

Abdulla is a strictly observant Muslim and known for being knowledgeable about the Koran. He also speaks and reads Arabic.